On Thursday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings—taking advantage of a brief home spell between legs of their two-part road trip—held practice at the BELFOR Training Center in Little Caesars Arena.
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Two players from the Red Wings' lineup on Tuesday night in Washington were unable to take part in the skate because of injury: forward Elmer Soderblom and defenseman Erik Gustafsson.
"Elmer is day-to-day right now," said coach Todd McLellan after the skate concluded. "Obviously didn't skate, but yeah, day-to-day." Soderblom appeared to suffer the injury in the third period of Tuesday's game against the Capitals. His final shift of the night came with just over seven minutes to play.
McLellan added that Detroit would "likely" call up a forward to join them for the final three games of the road trip (in Vegas Saturday, then Utah Monday, and Colorado Tuesday). Even without Soderblom, the Red Wings could bring Dominik Shine back into the lineup to return to a full complement of forwards, but that would leave them without a spare.
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Meanwhile, McLellan said that Gustafsson "is still being evaluated today. We'll call it day-to-day. There's potential for a longer term injury. We need some results [from testing]." Without Gustafsson, Detroit's immediate replacement option would be William Lagesson, who has played twice for the Red Wings this season, though not since Dec. 23 (incidentally, the final game of Derek Lalonde's tenure).
There is positive injury news on the blue line, however, as Jeff Petry continues to get closer to his return to action for the first time since Jan. 2. McLellan described Thursday morning as the "first true heavy hard practice" for Petry. He added that Petry is "getting close" and while he won't be an option against the Golden Knights Saturday, McLellan said he could be an option against Utah or the Avalanche.
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