Detroit – Avalanche winger Alex Tanguay sat out Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings because of a sore hip flexor, but with the long Olympic break coming up, it didn’t seem to be cause for alarm.
“If he could have played, I’m sure he would have, because he has time to recover,” Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. “But he wasn’t right.”
Though veteran center Pierre Turgeon also had said last week that he hoped to play at least one game before the break, it turned out that his shoulder injury kept him out of the lineup – and he now has missed the past 16 games. But he has been skating and is expected to be back in the lineup when the Avalanche’s schedule resumes Feb. 28 at home against the Minnesota Wild.
The Avalanche’s non-Olympians will resume practice Feb. 23. The league mandates that players can’t skate under team auspices before Feb. 22, and that embargo even includes such things as working with team trainers.
Wings are red hot
The Red Wings’ victory Sunday not only gave them a four-game sweep of the regular-season series against Colorado, it sent them into the break with a six-game win streak and a one-point lead on Carolina in the NHL’s overall standings.
Olympic movement
Before the game, the Red Wings introduced their nine Olympians in a ceremony that featured players’ children skating onto the ice. Detroit players have been more open about their intra-team teasing than the Avs, with U.S. defenseman Mathieu Schneider writing “USA” on the nameplates of Olympic opponents in the Detroit dressing room.
The Wings’ nine Turin-bound players are Chris Chelios and Schneider (USA), Kris Draper (Canada), Robert Lang (Czech Republic), Pavel Datsyuk (Russia) and four Swedes – Nick Lidstrom, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg.
Footnote
Avs radio play-by-play broadcaster Norm Jones missed the game in the wake of the death of his father.
