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| Lidstrom has been out since Feb. 25. (Getty Images) |
The Detroit Red Wings have been dealing with some dings and bruises recently, but it wasn't worth losing sleep over. Injuries to Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom weren't supposed to be long term and the plan was for them to return before the playoffs begin. It's not as though they are in danger of missing the playoffs.
But how often does a plan go off flawlessly?
Lidstrom, who was expected to be back by now from a nagging bone bruise on his right ankle, has had himself a setback. The team made the flight to San Jose from Los Angeles except for Lidstrom. He flew back to Detroit to be re-evaluated on Monday.
"We're discouraged and frustrated," Red Wings general manager Ken Holland told Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. "We thought he'd be back playing by now. He had a hard time putting his foot in the boot yesterday, so we decided to bring him home"
There isn't much encouraging in that. Before the injuries to Lidstrom and Datsyuk, the Red Wings were fighting -- and leading -- for the Presidents' Trophy. Since they went out, the Red Wings are fighting to hold off the Predators for the fourth seed in the West. If you don't know by now that Lidstrom is pretty good and important to the Wings, well I can't help you much.
They do still have a few weeks to figure out what's wrong and give Lidstrom more time to heal. The most important thing right now is that he gets healthy for the playoffs. In no way are the Wings going to rush him back into the lineup before he's healthy if it is a risk to him playing in the postseason.
On top of that, backup goalie Joey MacDonald is a little dinged up at the moment too and won't be backing up Jimmy Howard on Saturday. He's been good in relief since he was called up, but at this point it doesn't sound serious.
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