Husso Injury Forces Goalie Shuffle; Edvinsson Game-Time Decision

An injury to Ville Husso means Magnus Hellberg will be in the Detroit Red Wings net tonight against the St. Louis Blues and Alex Nedeljkovic will be his backup.

“Husso is dealing with something he’s been dealing with of late,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Ville is unavailable for us. He’ll be in an evaluation phase for a couple of days, see where we go forward with it.”

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Lalonde also said he won’t know until after the warm-up whether Simon Edvinsson or Gus Lindstrom will be playing tonight. Both players have injuries.  Lindstrom played last game, but he’s still not 100 percent.

“Neither are probably 100 percent, so we’ll see post (warmups) tonight,” Lalonde said.

Edvinsson is on an emergency recall because of Lindstrom’s undisclosed injury. If Linstrom plays again, Edvinsson probably would have to be sent back to the Griffins. However, the Red Wings could opt to change his status to a regular call-up. What the Red Wings likely will not do is allow him to play more than nine games. That would burn a season on his three-season entry level contract.

But Lalonde said there has been no further discussion on turning his recall into regular one. Edvinsson has been impressive in his two NHL games, particularly his second game. He has been physical, mobile and played a sound defensive game.

Hellberg beat the Blues in a shootout Tuesday in St. Louis. He made 20 saves and was perfect in the shootout.

“He played well the other night, may be some momentum off that,” Lalonde said. “It’s tough for a backup goalie to get rhythm. It’s a tough task not playing for a week, 10 days at times, always getting the back to back assignments like he did the other night.”

The Red Wings recalled Nedeljkovic from the Grand Rapids Griffins Thursday. He hasn’t played an NHL game since Dec. 8, but he has been sharp for the Griffins. He boasts a 2.71 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in Grand Rapids.

The Red Wings have been carefully monitoring how much Husso plays because before this season he never played more than 42 games. Husso has logged 51 appearances this season.