Abel to Yzerman
Franzen Shelved 3-4 Weeks
by IwoCPO on 10/07/07 at 05:15 PM ET
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1635 EST: Updated below with quotes from Holland.
Two games in and Uncle Mike has his first tough decision. As Dave pointed out in a comment below, Bruce MacLeod reports the Mule is out for a month.
Johan Franzen has a Grade 2 sprain of the MCL (medial collateral ligament) in his right knee. Franzen’s leg was injured during the second period of Saturday night’s shootout loss in Chicago. Tuomo Ruutu was tripped by Pavel Datsyuk and fell on Franzen’s leg.
The injury will keep Franzen out of the lineup for 3-4 weeks.
Detroit is carrying two spare forwards on its roster ... Aaron Downey and Matt Ellis. One will be inserted in the lineup for Monday’s home game, but isn’t likely to assume Franzen’s role on the top line. A third-line player—Dan Cleary, Valtteri Filppula or Kris Draper—could be bumped up to Datsyuk’s top line with Ellis or Downey skating on the third or fourth line.
My early guess is that Dan Cleary gets bumped up to the top line with Datsyuk and Homer. Another possibility is sticking Hudler on the top line and putting Cleary on the second line with Zetterberg and Samuelsson.
For those of you wondering, Igor Grigorenko was pointless with two shots in the Griffen opener last night; a game that saw Jimmy Howard get the best of Dive favorite Jose Theodore.
Ted Kulfan somehow tracked down Ken Holland, a deep digger coup.
“I haven’t talked to Johan yet, but I’m sure he’s disappointed,” general manager Ken Holland said. “He was one of our best players during the exhibition season (team-leading five goals), and he was looking forward to this season. It’s disappointing, but now this creates an opportunity for somebody else.”
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Tags: cleary,
deep+diggers,
franzen,
grigorenko,
holland,
hudler
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