Fabbri Suffers Minor Injury; Maatta May Play Red Wings Opener

Forward Robby Fabbri suffered an undisclosed minor injury Thursday and probably won’t play Saturday’s home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“He’s day to day,” Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Not likely for tomorrow, but we hope to have him Monday (at Columbus).”

Lalonde said the Red Wings will wait until after tonight’s Grand Rapids Griffins’ game before deciding on Fabbri’s call-up replacement. The possible choices include Jonatan Berggren, Marco Kasper, Elmer Soderblom and Cross Hanas.

It’s also possible that Lalonde might go with seven defensemen and 11 forwards against the Lightning. Lalonde said Friday that he would like to find room for Olli Maatta in the lineup. He was a healthy scratch Thursday during a 4-3 loss against the New Jersey Devils.

“Everything is on the table; 12 and 6, 11 and 7, a forward from GR playing,” Lalonde said. “We’re very comfortable with any scenario.”

Crowded Defensive Roster

The fact that Fabbri’s injury is minor is almost good news for Fabbri. He has endured multiple surgeries on both of his knees, and has missed considerable time in his tenure with the Red Wings.

The Red Wings have seven veteran defensemen, which means someone has to sit out unless Lalonde opts to go with seven defensemen and 11 forwards. Justin Holl was the Detroit defenseman who played the least amount of minutes (14:27) on Thursday.

Maatta was a steady performer for the Red Wings last season. The Red Wings like his consistency.

“Some defensive stability, simple on the breakout, hard to play against.” Lalonde said about Maatta. “We literally could have had an argument, maybe outside of Mo, having anyone healthy scratched in Game 1 and we went more err on special teams and it worked. I thought we had a pretty good special teams last night with 50 percent on the power play and we killed 5 of 6. We could have used (Maatta) taking some defensive minutes away from some other guys.”