from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

The Detroit Red Wings were hoping to play Tyler Bertuzzi in the preseason to get him reacclimated to the pace and physicality of games following back surgery and essentially a lost season.

But he wasn’t ready to play Monday and might need to start the season without the benefit of a couple of exhibitions.

“Returning to play coming off major back surgery, there’s lots that goes into that,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Part of it is just getting your body ready. He hasn’t skated this hard in a lot of months, way more months than other people. We’ll keep taking our time and ultimately our goal is to have him ready for Game 1 against Tampa (Oct. 14). We’d love to have him in exhibition games that can help you feel your way into it. But right now, we’re just making sure we’re progressing at the right speed.

“There’s a lot of different ways you can get ready. Certainly, some of it is playing in the exhibition season. I’d love for him to be able to do that. But we’ll see how it progresses.”

It is unclear whether Bertuzzi suffered another injury in camp. He took part in hard battle drills on Friday and Blashill said he was expected to practice on Monday....

“He’s cleared but when you haven’t played in a long time, your hips feel different, you haven’t battled, and your groins feel different,” Blashill said. “It (a decision to play him) is up to all of us. Certainly, he’s got a huge voice in it, so does our medical staff and so do I.”

read on for more Wings talk...