Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Notebook: Erne Brings Much-Need Physical Presence in Return to Lineup

Injury woes again cropping up for Detroit

Published

1 year ago

March 2, 2023

Bob Duff

A recall from AHL Grand Rapids brought Adam Erne's physciality into the Red Wings lineup.

Openings on the roster led to the summoning of veteran forward Adam Erne from AHL Grand Rapids, but that’s not the only reason why Erne’s presence was requested.

His phyiscal play was a welcome addition after the club was roughed up during back-to-back losses at Ottawa earlier this week.

Adam Erne or Floyd Mayweather? #LGRW pic.twitter.com/MCJCu8qTFE

— Woodward Sports Network (@woodwardsports) March 3, 2023

Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken was barely a minute underway when Erne was dropping the mitts and tangling with Kraken forward Yani Gourde. He was even deploying body shots, a tactic seldom seen in hockey fights.

Erne was also scoring a goal. He wound up finishing the night an assist shy of the coveted Gordie Howe hat-trick. Erne’s account was also displaying a game-leading seven hits.

“Love the fight, love the physical part of the game,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Good job by Erne.”

Rasmussen Done For Season

While the Red Wings were trading away two parts of their core over the past 24 hours in defenseman Filip Hronek and forward Tyler Bertuzzi, a second top-six forward also won’t been seen in a Detroit uniform again this season. Michael Rasmussen (lower-body injury) is out for the season.

“Probably indefinitely,” was Lalonde’s verdict on Rasmssen’s status. “I’d be surprised if we see him again this season. Just the nature of the injury, it’s obviously significant with the week to week, him being out indefinitely.”

The club is waiting to see how defenseman Jordan Oesterle (IR) responds during Friday’s practice before making a deicison on whether to recall a defenseman from the AHL Griffins for this weekend’s road games. Detroit is at the New York Islanders (Saturday) and Philadelphia Flyers (Sunday).

Lalonde was also awaiting word on the status of forward Filip Zadina. He appeared to suffer some sort of lower-body ailment when checked hard by Seattle defenseman Will Borgen during the third period of Thursday’s game.

“We’ll get the postgame report,” Lalonde said. “I see he was favoring it a little bit on the bench. We’ll see post game.”

Red Wings Ice Chips

Playing his 550th NHL game, Detroit defenseman Ben Chiarot was scoring his fifth goal of the season . . . The Red Wings have 33 goals from their blueline this season. Only five teams have had more goals from defensemen: Carolina (37), New Jersey (37), Florida (37), the New York Islanders (35) and Seattle (34) . . . Moritz Seider logged the primary assist on Erne’s goal, giving him 18 points (2-16-18) and a plus-eight rating in 23 games since Jan. 10 vs. Winnipeg.