Here They Come!

By Adam W Parks

Great news for Red Wings fans who are used to bad news this season: Wings beat writer Ansar Khan dropped this little nugget last night...

January 6, www.mlive.com: Reinforcements are arriving in the nick of time for the Detroit Red Wings, who are five points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and are in danger of drifting away from the pack.

Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary return Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, bolstering the Red Wings' top two lines and their ailing power play.

The team will be as healthy as it has been in weeks, missing only two regular forwards, Johan Franzen and Jason Williams.

"It's time," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We got to put some runs together, and it's going to take good runs over a long period of time to get us in a position we want to be."

Cleary missed 12 games with a separated shoulder, Zetterberg eight games with the same injury. Zetterberg will be reunited with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom. Cleary will play with Valtteri Filppula and Todd Bertuzzi, giving the club the strongest second line it has had in some time.

"Obviously, they're real good players; now, they got to get playing," Babcock said. "I'm putting (Zetterberg) on the wing, so Fil can skate for one group and Pav can do the skating for the other group because it's going to take them a bit to get their legs the way they want them to be."

King of Kings

The return of Zetterberg and Cleary could not have come any...quicker. Meet Jonathan Quick, LA Kings workhorse goaltender. The 23-year-old American leads all NHL puck-stoppers in games started (39) and is tied in wins (23) with Phoenix's Ilya Bryzgalov, trailing only Martin Brodeur (27), Ryan Miller, and Evgeni Nabokov (both 24). His goals-against average (2.56) and save percentage (.907) are rather average, but make no mistake, he is the main reason why LA is currently holding down a playoff position.

In his second season Quick has already surpassed his win total from a year ago (21) in two less starts. He has won his past three contests allowing only five goals on a total of 103 shots, including a 47 save effort against San Jose on Monday.

With Zetterberg and Cleary back tonight, Mike Babcock will finally have some flexibility with his scoring lines again. Any of the following combinations have the potential to put pucks past Quick on any given shift:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Cleary
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi

Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Cleary-Filppula-Holmstrom
Holmstron-Filppula-Bertuzzi

The Wings' power play should feel a major surge in the upcoming games with a rotation of these players. Detroit's man-advantage has slipped to 20th in the league at 17.1% and has slowed to a relative trickle over the past 11 games (5.1%). Against Anaheim, and nothing against these players, the second power play unit was Filppula centering with Justin Abdelkader and Matias Rittola...one of those forwards has already been sent back to Grand Rapids, another could join him once everyone else is back.

Pressure Relieved?

It will remain to be seen how much of an immediate impact that Hank and Cleary will have on the lineup, but it should be safe to expect an explosion of good Detroit hockey soon. I will be watching to see how the rest of the team reacts tonight; whether guys like Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, Kris Draper, and Darren Helm will be able to breathe a little easier as they slip back into their typical roles. Keep an eye on Pavel Datsyuk, who has three goals and ten points during Zetterberg's eight-game absence, as he will get to see even more room to move. And Nicklas Lidstrom and the defense should feel some relief in their own zone as the returning skill will keep more pressure at the other end of the ice.

And we as fans, whether the Wings win or lose tonight, can take a big sigh. From here on out, barring anymore unfortunate and significant setbacks, we should be able to watch Detroit get better and better game in and game out. Now, not everyone is back yet. Niklas Kronwall and Jason Williams are due back fairly soon, as is Jonathan Ericsson, and Johan Franzen might even have a tentative target return for February!

By The Way...

If you read the story about Chris Osgood being unhappy with his playing time and Babcock's decision making, you might be interested to know that Jimmy Howard will get his seventh straight start tonight in LA. The Ozzy situation will be closely monitored, though hopefully there will be nothing else made public in regards to his disgruntlement.

Welcome Back Hank and Dan.
RIP Phil.
Peace.