Red Wings Notebook: Fabbri Brought Energy in First Game in Nine Months

DETROIT — Robby Fabbri played his first game in nine months and received strong reviews from Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde.

“I liked Fabbri’s game,” Lalonde said. “He obviously creates some offense. He set somebody up all alone in the slot. Unfortunately, we had that really good push in the second where we were Grade A, Grade A, Grade A, earned our power play, and then they scored seconds into their power play. It kind of changed the whole feel of the game. We really felt we were pushing.”

Fabbri had his third major knee surgery last March. He was injured on March 10. In his return, he played 14:54 on a line with Pius Suter and Oskar Sundqvist. He had two shots and three hits.  Fabbri was also a -2.

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“He drove offense a little bit on his line,” Lalonde said. “He’s energy, had made plays, he hunted pucks. He was good tonight. Maybe a little rust. Obviously I didn’t like the turnover he created for their goal against is something we haven’t done all year. And I think that’s just him getting up to speed with his game.

Bertuzzi, Zadina Target Date

The Red Wings are hoping injured forwards Filip Zadina and Tyler Bertuzzi are ready to play at the start of a three-game Western Conference road trip starting Jan. 16 in Colorado.

“They went to that week to week to maybe day to day,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “They both look good. Zadina might be a little longer, just a lower body. Some days his recovery from a hard practice is a lot different than an upper body. Both are technically in a no-contact.”

Bertuzzi said that he expects to be ready in “a week or so, give or take.”

“I’m not 100 percent,” he said. “But feeling better and starting to practice.”

Bertuzzi has had two broken bones this season that forced two separate stays on the injury list.

“This one’s a little bit different,” Bertuzzi said. “It’s my thumb. The other one was kind of my hand.”

Larkin Fully Functional

Dylan Larkin took 15 faceoffs against New Jersey, an indication that his hand is starting to feel 100%. An injured hand forced him to miss a game in Minnesota in mid-December. He has taken fewer faceoffs.

“It’s nice to be back taking face-offs and just playing center for a long time you get engaged that way,” Larkin said. “I felt tonight it was nice to get back in there and not have my hand affect me too much.”

The Red Wings had a 61%-39% faceoff advantage against New Jersey. Larkin won 67% of his faceoffs. However, bad plays on faceoffs, including one by Larkin, led to two New Jersey power play goals

Ice Chips

Lucas Raymond scored on the power play for his 10th goal of the season. Raymond is the fourth Detroit player to reach double-figures in goals this season, joining Dylan Larkin (13), Dominik Kubalik (12) and David Perron (12)…Larkin assisted on Raymond’s goal to become the first Red Wing this season with 20 assists.