I didn’t realize Bertuzzi was back. How long has he been?

He's back as of today, So he was out exactly 4 weeks.

Seemed like 44 weeks.

Great

Fingers crossed for some rust!

Yeah it always does, When you've one of your better players out.

That's what bugs me about fans of other teams judging the Red Wings. They pretend they're completely healthy and haven't been missing any important players.

I don't know, Seems like Bert always gets red hot after missing games. He missed most of the season in 21/22 and yet his first game back against Tampa after missing most of the season he scored 4 goals
But we shall see it should be a good game tonight in Anaheim.

Bertuzzi, Fabbri and Vrana that's 3 top 6 players right there out. Had all 3 played from day one no injuries or whatever. We'd probably be even better than what we're right now.

Yeah I'm not pretending Detroit would be an elite team or anything. But missing that many key players on a team has to affect team performance. We always hear "every team has injuries" and "next man up." But a rebuilding team like Detroit can't sustain the injuries as well as a good team can. Like Boston or Colorado for example.

Despite the blowouts, we've been surviving better than I thought we would. Larkin is the heart of this team but Bertuzzi is the lungs. It'll be good to have him back. I just hope he can remain in the lineup. Knock on wood.