Soderblom, Lindstrom Still Day-to-Day; Berggren Makes Case to Stay

The Elmer Soderblom lower body injury, suffered while blocking a shot, is keeping him out of the Detroit Red Wings’ lineup longer than anticipated.

“We have had Soderblom day-to-day with a lower body and we were hoping to see him today and the fact that he wasn’t able to practice again today,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said Monday. “I can’t give you an exact, we’re still keeping that day to day.”

The phrase “day-to-day” is often associated with short-term injury, but really what it means is the injury is reassessed every day to see if there is progress.

“Now you’re into he hasn’t played in a couple weeks, it’s probably going to take some time,” Lalonde said.

Lindstrom Back Sooner

The other day-to-day player is defenseman Gustav Lindstrom. “But with Lindy he’s a true day to day, lower
body,” Lalonde said. “Maybe not available Wednesday but if not, I’m sure he’d be available shortly after that.”

The Red Wings face the Nashville Predators at home Wednesday, During these injuries, the Red Wings have been able to look at prospect forward Jonatan Berggren and defenseman Jake Walman who has recovered from offseason shoulders surgery. Both players have made favorable impressions.

Walman is making a case to play regularly in Detroit’s third pairing and Berggren has demonstrated he can make things happen offensively. Undoubtedly, he’s trying to make a case to remain in Detroit

“I think flashes of skill, which are great, but I think there’s times… adding a skilled guy to your lineup shows up in many different ways,” Lalonde said.  “Sometimes it shows up with a play out of the D-zone. Or a skilled play in the neutral zone that keeps the play moving north. It’s not necessarily that world-class skill play ends up in the back of the net. I think some of that skill helps our lineup. It’s a little different being in the bottom six. We’ve given him looks in the top six when warranted and it’s helped our lineup but it’s just a different look in our bottom six, a little skill that’s helped us.”

Detroit’s third defensive pairing of Lindstrom and Robert Hagg has struggled this season and players like Walman or Mark Pysyk (returning to the lineup around New Year’s Day) could end up on that third pair. Jordan Oesterle (+7) has also made a case to be a regular.