from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
Darren Helm is out six-to-eight weeks with an upper-body injury, leaving the Detroit Red Wings with spots to fill on the top line and on the penalty kill.
Helm had been skating with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha, using his speed on the forecheck and providing a net-front presence. Justin Abdelkader has filled that spot in practice the past two days.
"I think Justin Abdelkader has been really good in the last little stretch," coach Jeff Blashill said. "I put him up on that line with Larkin and Mantha in that game (Saturday). I'm not saying that's exactly what we'll do, but he fills a similar-type role, where he's a forechecker and a net-presence guy and both those guys want that.
"They're different a little bit. Helmer is a little quicker, but I think Abby has been skating really good."
from Dana Wakiji of the Wings' website,
So is Bertuzzi ready to kill penalties Wednesday against the Boston Bruins?
"I'll let you know after I watch the tape from practice today," Blashill said. "We were filming and we'll see how he does. If he's making a bunch of right reads then it gives us a chance that maybe he's our sixth guy. Certainly Double-A (Andreas Athanasiou) can be our sixth guy. We've got five that we've got lots of confidence in so I'm not in a huge rush to go to a sixth necessarily but you certainly want to have those guys available to you given penalties and injuries and things like that. So we filmed him today and we'll watch it and help correct any mistakes and see where his reads are at."
Glendening, Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen and Jacob de la Rose are the Wings' top five penalty-killing forwards.
"I did it a little bit in junior but I've been in on all the meetings, I'm watching video on it, do I'm a little familiar with it," Bertuzzi said. "I just gotta get through the reps like I did in practice."
Below, watch Bertuzzi, Nyquist and Blashill after today's practice.
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