Freshly minted Red Wings forward Erik Cole relayed a message from his old captain to his new one:
Sorry.
Cole’s new captain, of course, is Henrik Zetterberg -- who’s been out since Feb. 21 following a punch to the head from Dallas captain Jamie Benn.
Today, Zetterberg got Benn’s note of remorse from Cole, who spent the last three seasons with Benn in Dallas before getting flipped to Detroit on Sunday.
"[Benn] sent me here with an apology,” Cole said following today’s skate. “I told [Zetterberg] this morning.”
Here’s the incident in question, in case you missed it:
As the video shows, Benn received a two-minute roughing minor on the play. Zetterberg finished the second period but left the game after taking just one 15-second shift in the third, and hasn’t played since.
Zetterberg did absolve Benn of any blame, however, saying the Dallas forward “just got me in a bad spot.”
“I don’t think it was that bad,” he explained. “We had a battle on the faceoff and I think both me and him have done worse things than that on the ice.”
Speaking of Zetterberg, he could return to the Red Wings lineup on Wednesday for a tilt against the Rangers. If he does, it’s expected he’ll be on a line with Cole and Justin Abdelkader.