The Detroit Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom will sit out Tuesday's game against Philadelphia with a knee strain. He apparently suffered the injury during the team's 4-0 win over Columbus Sunday when his skate caught a rut. He is listed as day-to-day. Holmstrom has already missed 26 games this season due to injury. He underwent his second sports hernia surgery in less than a year in early February, and was only four games into a return from that injury after sitting out 18. For a player who takes such a ridiculous amount of abuse on a nightly basis, he's been remarkably resilient over the years. This just hasn't been his season.
The Wings will dress all eight active defensemen they have in order to fill in the holes left by Holmstrom and Valtteri Filppula, who is out with back spasms. Derek Meech will make yet another appearance as a forward tonight, the simlarly smooth-skating Brett Lebda will likely remain on the blueline despite filling in at center this morning in practice. Chris Chelios will appear in just his 22nd game this season.
Holmstrom will be missed against a Philadelphia team already talking up a physical strategy for tonight's game, but if the Wings play anything like they did this weekend, they'll find a way to cope.
If this turns out to be something that keeps him out longer than a couple games, the bright side for Wings fans will be a rested Homer for the playoffs.
