Red Wings Notebook: Edvinsson Will Be Back in Lineup

When extra-large defenseman Simon Edvinsson has missed a game this season it’s been a reminder of how valuable he is to the Detroit Red Wings. The team is 3-5-2 in his 10 missed games this season.

That’s why the sight of Edvinsson fully participating in the first Olympic break practice today was greeted enthusiastically by relieved fans.

“Expect him to be ready (for games),” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “Based on where he’s at right now and looking into the future with the trainers and everybody’s involvement, he should be ready. ”

The 6-foot-6 Swede hasn’t played since Jan. 21 because of an undisclosed injury. He missed the last seven games before the Olympic break.

“We missed him,” McLellan said. “You can see our play wasn’t as strong, in my opinion, as when we had him in the lineup.”

Two Griffins Call-Ups

The Red Wings have summoned veterans Sheldon Dries and Austin Watson from the Grand Rapids Griffins on emergency call-ups.

Given that the Red Wings won’t play a game for another week, the call-up is probably just to have more bodies for Detroit’s mini-training camp.  With Moritz Seider, Dylan Larkin, and Lucas Raymond at the Olympics, the Red Wings roster is three players short.

Extra bodies make it easier for scrimmaging and running five-on-five drills.

McLellan Set List

The Red Wings plan to work on several areas of their game, including five-on-five scoring. Coaches can’t transform grinders into 50-goal scorers, but there are strategies to improve a team’s finishing rate.

“Is there one or two areas that we have to polish up?” McLellan said. “We’d like to score more. We’d like to score more five-on-five. And this will give us a little bit of time to, to work on some of those things. Some of the concepts that maybe we don’t get to work on as much during the year. When we look at chances for and against and expected goals. . . we’re getting opportunities.

“The last game in Utah, we didn’t play our best, but we had multiple scoring opportunities there. The goaltender played outstanding. We didn’t finish. And we need to bear down and polish some of that up.”