AHL Call-Ups Now Weekly Part of Red Wings Life As Janik Recalled

Looking at the Detroit Red Wings website, and one would be very surprised to find that the Red Wings have a three game win streak.

The symbol for "injured reserve" is a double star (**) and it appears five times (should be six because Dan Cleary is out for a while) on Detroit's web site.

Now, once again, the Red Wings are forced to go to the well and this time call up Doug Janik from Grand Rapids to replace the injured Jonathan Ericsson.

Ericsson is out for two weeks with what appears to be a bruised knee. The Red Wings have lost quite a few key players in their line up (Franzen, Cleary, Filppula, Williams, Kronwall and Lilja to be specific) and with the loss of Ericsson one can wonder how long the Wings can hold out.

Some how, some way, the Red Wings have been able to grab the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Many attribute it to the point production from their call ups.

Derek Meech (usually the odd man out in the Red Wings defensive rotation) had the game winning goal in the last game against Phoenix, while recent call up Kris Newbury scored the fourth goal of his NHL career and first as a Detroit Red Wing against Phoenix.

After being picked up off of waivers, Drew Miller has emerged as a skilled power forward player. With five points in 17 games and three in his last two games, Miller has made his presence felt.

An AHL call up does not usually have any pressure on him to make an impact, but in this case I think that the AHL call ups have put the pressure on Janik.

The Red Wings will next play Tampa Bay at home and this is a perfect game to ease Janik into the Red Wings system.

Janik has played one game with Detroit this season and hopefully he will make his presence felt against Tampa Bay.