Red Wings F Justin Abdelkader Out With Upper-Body Injury
Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader will not be in the lineup when the Wings face-off against the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.
The Detroit Red Wings will be without a very valuable asset in Justin Abdelkader when they host the Florida Panthers Tuesday night. Abdelkader will sit out of the game with an upper body injury. He was injured in Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks after a hard hit from Lucas Sbisa.
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Abdelkader was attempting to carry the puck into the Canucks zone fighting off a defender when Sbisa rocked Abdelkader with a hard shoulder hit. Abdelkader was clearly shaken up on the play as he got up gingerly and slowly made his way to the bench. He did not return to the game after the hit.
Detroit head coach Mike Babcock clearly understands how valuable Abdelkader is to his team.
“He penalty kills, blocks shots, he plays hard on offense,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said Monday, according to MLive.com. “He understands you score goals by being at the net so he goes to the net. He’s an important player for us. He’s a guy that works hard every day in my opinion. He brings it almost every day, skates good, gets in on the fore-check. So we need guys like that.”
It is not known yet how serious the injury is, but Detroit is obviously not hoping it is anything serious. Abdelkader is currently tied for third on the team in scoring, registering 7 goals and 8 assists for 15 points.