Husso, Fabbri and Lalonde after practice today.

via the Detroit Free Press,

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

"It's been a tough year for keeping everyone healthy," said Robby Fabbri, who returned in January after major knee surgery. "But everyone is back, and it adds to a healthy competition, and we need that depth."

Lalonde also mentioned the helpfulness of having depth, given the health of the roster.

"You hope for depth," Lalonde said. "Looking at the roster before the break, the depth guys we were deciding on for in and out of the lineup, those were the guys that were in our top six (forwards, early in the season)."

The Wings won two of their last three games before the break, losing the finale, 2-0, on Long Island against the New York Islanders.

At 21-19-8 (50 points), the Wings find themselves seven points away from Pittsburgh and the second and final wild-card spot. Unfortunately, there are five teams between the Wings and Pittsburgh. And even though the Wings have played the fewest games among any of those teams and as many as four or five less than several of the teams it's still going to be a huge mountain to climb.

The key, for Lalonde, will be playing with consistency. The Wings have played some impressive games in victories this season against elite teams. But, they've also lost against the bottom-feeders in the standings, which left everyone scratching their heads.

"I just think the consistency and getting over the hump and stringing together consistency hockey" said Lalonde, of what'll be vital. "You can see how we were building, winning two of the last three games, and we won and we gave ourselves a chance on (Long Island) and we didn't generate a ton (offensively), but we were right there."

more ($)

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

You glance here and there (at the standings), Fabbri said. The biggest thing is you got to worry about whats going on in here. At the end of the day, were playing some good hockey. Just some things were going to tighten up and try to get on a little run.

The time off, a combination of their bye week and the All-Star break, was especially vital for goaltender Ville Husso, wholl make his 35th start on Tuesday.

Its always nice to get that time off, get a little refreshed, restart and come back with a lot of energy, Husso said.

I think weve been playing pretty well against good teams and theres going to be a lot of good teams were going to play. We know we can beat anybody in this league.

Its a matter of finding consistency.

You can see how were building. I dont mind how were playing, Lalonde said. We won two of the last three before the break, gave ourselves a chance (in a 2-0 loss at the Islanders on Jan. 27). I think consistency in getting over the hump.

more

from Nate Brown of Detroit Hockey Now,

We have a lot of great depth on the team, Walman said. I think everybody can play, everybody on our roster can play on any NHL team. I think we all push each other to get better and its healthy competition. When everybodys healthy, I think we can be a really good team.

Just when the Red Wings were though to be fully healthy, the injury bug returns. Filip Hronek left with what the team called an upper body injury during practice. Lalonde didnt have any more information.

I did not [get an update], Lalonde said. Upper body. Dont know. Looks like something he got in a rep there. Well know more in the morning.

Signs point to Robert Hagg working back in, but Lalonde pointed to the good fortune of the blue line escaping major injury.

Knock on wood, we had a D go down in practice today, Lalonde said. With all those forward injuries, were very fortunate on the back end, where of late we havent had to go through our eighth or ninth D man.

more