from Ansar Khan of Mlive,'

Coach Derek Lalonde said doctors confirmed on Wednesday that Andrew Copp has a broken cheekbone, and Michael Rasmussen will miss his fourth consecutive game due to an upper-body injury.

They form two-thirds of an effective energy line, with Christian Fischer, that forechecks and can be hard to play against.

Itll make the Red Wings task against the streaking Penguins and Sidney Crosby more difficult.

You just ask more from everyone, Lalonde said. You need some of that heavy, some of that zone time. You need to win position a lot and those guys are able to do it at times. This time of year, you need that grind time. Those two gave it to us, so well need it elsewhere....

Lalonde ordinarily try to match Copp against Crosby, but Copp was injured with 5:41 remaining in Tuesdays 2-1 loss to the Capitals, on a high stick from Nicolas Aube-Kubel that wasnt called.

Hes got to go through some more protocol in the next 24 hours, Lalonde said. Well know more the next couple of days. Id love to see him rolling out with his old Michigan college cage back on and give us some games down the stretch, but time will tell....

Aston-Reese will probably help us on the penalty kill, having two of our top killers out, Lalonde said. When Copp and Ras were playing at a high level, with Fisch, it gave us a really productive line that could free up our top six a little bit. But very confident with Veleno getting slotted up in our top nine at center. Really comfortable with our lineup going into Pittsburgh.

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from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com,

Heres a sobering thought for the Detroit Red Wings entering a massive game at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN-PIT, BSDET, SNP, SNE, TVAS):

We may not be here next year, Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said Wednesday.

Lalonde means the Red Wings might not have an opportunity to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs next season like they do right now, and so they feel added urgency to seize it.

Thats not a knock on Detroit, mired in a seven-season playoff drought. Its the reality in the competitive Eastern Conference, and its true not just for the Red Wings but for the Penguins, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers too.

Look at the standings: The Capitals hold the second wild card in the East with 85 points. The Penguins and Red Wings are one point behind, and the Flyers are two points back. Washington, Pittsburgh and Detroit each has four games to go. Philadelphia has three.

Now zoom out. Are the teams above going to fade next season? Are the teams below going to stay down? Lalonde didnt want to name other teams but pointed to the New Jersey Devils. They have 79 points, but they had 112 last season, finished second in the Metropolitan Division and defeated the New York Rangers in seven games in the Eastern Conference First Round before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in five in the second.

I dont foresee New Jersey not flirting with 100 points (next season), Lalonde said. You dont get these opportunities (all the time), and were in one. So, we had an opportunity last night; we came up short. We have an opportunity tomorrow against Pittsburgh; we would like to seize that opportunity.

continued