Detroit Red Wings

Fabbri Will Play Only One of Detroit’s Back-to-Back Games

Published

1 year ago

January 6, 2023

Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde has already decided that Robby Fabbri, newly returned to the lineup, should only play one of Detroit’s two games this weekend.

Fabbri played Wednesday for the first time in more than nine months. He has been rehabilitating from his third major knee surgery.

Lalonde said Thursday he wasn’t sure whether he would stick with Wednesday’s lineup, but did not think he wanted Fabbri to play both Friday against Florida and Saturday at Toronto.

Never forget the attempted kidnapping of Robby Fabbri pic.twitter.com/a5DaIdtBKL

— supernintendo chalmers (@helmerroids) January 4, 2023

“So it’s just the matter if he’ll play that front end or back end,” Lalonde said. “Have to figure that out.”

Lalonde said he asked Fabbri if he had a preference if he was only going to play one.

“He’s told me either way (is fine),” Lalonde said, “It’s my eighth year in the league, if I was younger in the league of course I’d want to play in Toronto. But it costs him a little money for tickets (for friends and family) in Toronto so he’s fine either way.”

Adam Erne would draw into the lineup if Fabbri doesn’t play. Erne is the team’s most consistent hitter.

Fabbri made his season debut Wednesday in a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils. He brought the same energy and spunky that has always defined his game. He hadn’t played a game since March 10.

Fabbri Knows the Routine

“Better than I expected after being off for 10 months,” Fabbri said. “The work I put into it and the time we took to make sure that when I did come back I’d feel as good as I can. A lot of the things will get better as I play games again and right them in practice. Overall pretty good but some areas to clean up.”

If Fabbri played the next two games, he would be playing three games in four nights. That doesn’t sound like a good plan for an athlete who is still trying to restore his game.

“Yeah, we’ll talk about that one,” he said Thursday. “I’ll start with tomorrow and go from there.

Unfortunately for Fabbri, he is so experienced at the rehabilitation of injuries he is probably ahead of where most players would be.

“Over the last couple of times you learn and you tweak your training as you get to the end, just to try and get as ready as possible,” He said. “At the end of the day, it’s gonna take games. We’ll just keep taking it game by game.”