Red Wings News: Henrik Zetterberg Injury Update

Update (4:37 PM): A few more details have emerged:

First, Zetterberg told Ansar Khan that he hopes to be back in the lineup next week. In the meantime, Matt Ellis will fill in. 

Second, the injury is apparently unrelated to his past back problems. Ted Kulfan reports that Zetterberg "said the pain is in the lower back, but is not related to the disc." As George Malik suggests, it's possible this is all strictly due to bruising caused by the hit he took late in the game Saturday.

Now we just have to wait and see if he does only miss two games. - Matt

Update (3:40 PM): It's official: Zetterberg will skip the All Star Game for the second year in a row. The NHL has added five players to the Western roster as replacements and Hank is listed as one of the players being replaced. 

This is good news for the Wings. Zetterberg should be in the Game, but he's showing once again that his priority is the team rather than personal accolades. Hopefully he'll come out of the Break healthy and ready to go. - Matt

Update (2:47 PM): It's straight from the brand new "official" Hockeytown Blog": Henrik Zetterberg is out for tonight.  (via Snapshots)

We know from last time this happened that Hank deals with back pain on a regular basis and that it is only when it becomes particularly bad that it gets reported. If this higher level of pain becomes a more frequent thing, we have a problem.

Until now, it may have been possible to delude ourselves into thinking this was just one time that the Wings' PR machine let news of a health problem leak prematurely or unnecessarily. Now, however, is a good time to get concerned.

Mario Lemieux played with severe back problems for years. The fact that he at times had to have other people tie his skates is well known. However, it was his cancer and heart problems that forced him to retire (twice).

So, it's not outside the realm of possibility that Zetterberg's career won't end the same way Mickey Redmond's did.

The parallel to Mario may be misplaced, as we can't compare Hank's pain to his, nor do we know their respective pain thresholds, but Lemieux did set a precedent of sorts, I suppose. - Matt

I get the feeling that if this were the playoffs, Henrik Zetterberg would be playing tonight, no question.

That’s the key thing to remember here: The team is being ext