Red Wings’ Stecher In For Long Absence

When it comes to Troy Stecher’s upper-body injury, the Detroit Red Wings can’t offer a whole lot in terms of certainty regarding the defenseman’s ailment. Well, that’s not entirely true. There is one fact that is known for certain.

Stecher is going to be out for bit.

“Stech has a number of options and one of which I think is that he’s gonna kind of go through the next couple of weeks and see how the injury reacts,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill expained. “He’s hoping that it becomes a pain tolerance thing.”

This may be her #RedWings pet calendar debut but Phoebe Stecher is already a PRO.@troystecher pic.twitter.com/cPCcxqN0Ds

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 15, 2021

A week has already passed since Stecher’s injury was suffered during a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. He’ll be missing from the lineup for a fourth straight game as the Wings are tangling with the Washington Capitals on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.

Pain Tolerance Issue for Stecher

One thing about the injury – it can’t get any worse. The question for the time being is apparently whether it’s already to the point where it’s bad enough that Stecher can’t perform effectively.

“It’s not something that he can hurt further,” Blashill said. “If it doesn’t react right, he’s either going to have to take significant time off, or have surgery.

“The other choice – that’s two of them – the third choice is give it a couple of days here and see if he can play through the pain and if the pain will subside at all.

“We’ll just keep taking it day by day.”

Defensive Decisions Ahead

Stecher sat out the first four games of the season as a healthy scratch. Upon returning to the lineup, he played six of the next seven games. His offensive output is consisting of one assist.

Nicest guy in the world, works harder then anyone, has the most activated hips around, has the best/most funny stories, has marinara mitts, pulls backhand toeys like it’s his profession (it is), gluten free, family man, role model. Congrats Gags 👏🏼 https://t.co/WZPAN6jp4a

— Troy Stecher (@troystecher) November 10, 2021

Stecher isn’t the only injury concern along the Detroit back end. Blashill indicated that defensemen Filip Hronek and Marc Staal would be game-time decisions. The same goes for rookie forward Lucas Raymond. Each was sitting out of Wednesday’s practice for maintenance.

All three were participants in Thursday’s game-day skate. Blashill indicated that he anticipated they’d be good to go for the game against the Capitals.