As the season winds down, the list of players unavailable to the Detroit Red Wings grows.
Adam Erne won’t play tonight in Carolina (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit Plus) after being placed on the NHL’s COVID protocol list on Wednesday. Erne missed eight games in January during his first stint on the COVID protocol list.
Erne’s 11 goals are a career-high, and he is tied with Anthony Mantha, traded to Washington on April 12, for the most scored by a Red Wing this season. With 19 points in 43 games, Erne was one short of his career high established two seasons ago in 65 games with Tampa Bay.
He joins a long list of regulars who are out. That includes Robby Fabbri, who has been skating with the team but will miss his 13th consecutive game due to an upper-body injury.
“He’s going to start to run out of runway here,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s been day to day but as we get closer (to the end of the season), we’ll see (if he returns this season).”
The Red Wings (17-25-9) have four games remaining after tonight.
The Red Wings have had a complete lineup only once this season – in their second game. After that, several players were out for a few weeks due to COVID protocol. By the time, they returned, others were out due to injuries.
The list of regulars done for the season includes Dylan Larkin (upper-body), Tyler Bertuzzi (upper body), Bobby Ryan (upper body) and Frans Nielsen (lower body).
“When we’ve had our full roster, I think we’ve played pretty good hockey,” Blashill said. “We got off the tracks in that stretch when our guys had COVID (in January). That hurt us both on the score sheet and also hurt our confidence. Took us a little while to get out of that.
“I don’t think what might have been because there’s nothing I can do about it. Most importantly, all I’ve tried to focus on is us improving as a hockey team, improving as individuals, trying to lay a foundation of winning hockey, so that we can have days and seasons that are better than today.”
After a season-high goal total in a 7-3 victory over Dallas one week ago, the Red Wings have scored only one goal in their past two games and will take a goal-less streak of 109:15.
The Central Division-leading Hurricanes (32-10-7) are one point behind Vegas in the overall standings but Detroit has fared well against Carolina, going 4-3. The Red Wings have won the past three matchups between the clubs, including back-to-back wins at PNC Arena April 10-12.
Carolina has gone 5-0-3 since then.
“They’re a really good hockey team, obviously one of the best in the league,” Blashill said. “Over the last couple of years, they’ve really increased their forward skill and depth to where they have an elite group of forwards, an elite group of D, and all their goalies have played well.
“They’re a team that wants to tilt the ice, they want to play in your end. If you spend a bunch of time in your end, you’re in trouble. When you get a puck against Carolina, that puck better get out. If it stays in your end, they feed off that, they really get you kind of swimming in your own end. When we’ve had some success, we’ve done a good job of being quicker in our end. We’ve done a good job of getting pucks out and done a good job of playing in their end.”
More: Looking at the Red Wings’ salary cap situation for 2021-22
The Link LonkApril 29, 2021 at 11:57PM
https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2021/04/another-red-wing-out-as-team-faces-division-leading-carolina.html
Another Red Wing out as team faces division-leading Carolina - MLive.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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