Injury Update: Rasmussen to Miss Friday's Game vs. NYR, Detroit Through the Worst of "Flu Bug" Going Around Locker Room

An update on the status of Michael Rasmussen, after the winger picked up an injury Monday night against the Lightning

At their first practice back from a grueling five-game road trip, the Red Wings were short-handed.  It wasn't technically an optional skate, but Detroit had just seven defensemen and seven forwards available.

However, after practice, coach Derek Lalonde said that all those absences except one were just maintenance days: "Rasmussen will be out Friday [against the Rangers at home].  Everyone else today was a maintenance day."

"As coaches usually do, we had a whole 44-minute practice [planned]," lamented Lalonde.  "We were gonna go over everything and then some.  We were gonna over-coach the heck out of it today, and then the trainer came in about a half-hour before practice, and all these guys need a maintenance day.  The only player unavailable for us on Friday would be Ras."  He subsequently clarified that Ville Husso is also unavailable.

Of Rasmussen, Lalonde added "He'll be day-to-day.  I don't know if we'll see him over the weekend, but we'll get a better feel come Friday."  He also noted that Rasmussen "gives us some hard and some size.  He's around the net.  He's helping drive his line on the forecheck, so obviously that will be a miss for us."

In brighter news, Lalonde did say that he believes his team is through the worst of the illness that had been running through the locker room over the last two weeks: "I think it's well known now we went through a huge flu bug with the team, and I think we're on the good end of that now."

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