The chart in Jeff Blashill’s office at Little Caesars Arena keeps expanding. Keeping track of the players the Detroit Red Wings won’t have available for the rest of the season has become tedious, with Dylan Larkin joining Tyler Bertuzzi, Bobby Ryan and Frans Nielsen on the list. Larkin suffered an upper-body injury Tuesday when he got tangled with Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn off a draw late in the third period, finishing the game wincing in pain on the bench. Blashill wouldn’t detail the injury but it’s serious enough that Larkin will be re-evaluated in a couple weeks and might need surgery.
The Wings erupted for a 7-3 victory Thursday in their first game without Larkin, but that’s not a realistic expectation over the seven games left on the schedule, beginning with Saturday’s fourth straight contest against the Stars.
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“You don’t replace guys like that, not by one individual,” Blashill said Friday. “Dylan is a huge piece of our team — he’s our captain, he drives our engine with his work ethic every day both in practices and in games. But guys understand that just means collectively our competition level has to be elite every night, our work ethic has to be elite every night. We have to be a real good defensive team.”
Teams deal with adversity every season, but between injuries and having five players in COVID-19 protocol in mid-January, the Wings have lost 166 man games. They’ve played only once — in their second game of the season — with the lineup they anticipated having during training camp.
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They’re all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, their depth unable to withstand going without Bertuzzi since Jan. 30 and without Ryan since March 28. Bertuzzi is another player who may need surgery. Ryan already has had a procedure to deal with an undisclosed injury.
Losing Larkin, Bertuzzi and Ryan significantly thinned the Wings’ top-six group. Robby Fabbri hasn’t played since April 3, and while he has not been ruled out for the final two weeks, he won’t be available Saturday.
Last season, the defense that bore a heavy brunt, with Danny DeKeyser lost to a back injury eight games in. The Wings cycled through 14 defensemen in 2019-20.
“It’s been a hard run lately,” Blashill said. “That happens some years and unfortunately for two years in a row here, we’ve been hit. The injury bug is one thing; I think man-games lost is a number. I think the significance of the injuries and where those players fit within your team definitely have a big impact. A year ago, we missed DK the whole season. Now this is a huge loss for us. We’ve missed Bert for a lot of the year but we’ve also started getting into Fabs and Larks and Bobby Ryan and Nielsen.
“But I will say it also gives the group that is getting the opportunity to play to show what they are all about.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.