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Wings captain Zetterberg to miss second straight

Henrik Zetterberg

Detroit Red Wings left wing Henrik Zetterberg (40), of Sweden, celebrates his goal against the Montreal Canadiens in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

AP

The upper-body injury that made Henrik Zetterberg a late scratch for Sunday’s loss to Florida will keep him out for a second game, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Zetterberg won’t play on Tuesday against Philly, further complicating things for Detroit up front. On Sunday, Wings head coach Mike Babcock was forced to put Johan Franzen at center in place of Zetterberg, something the Wings wanted to avoid as Franzen had missed the previous 16 games with a concussion.

“You come to the rink hopeful [Zetterberg is] going to play,” Babcock said, per Fox Sports Detroit. “Because we didn’t have morning skate we didn’t know. Then we got the news and went from there. We would have liked (Johan) Franzen not to play in the middle his first game back.

“When you’re a winger and you got go in the middle it’s great when you’ve played and you got tempo and you’re in the kind of game shape you want to be. But that’s part of life.”

The Wings will also be without Pavel Datsyuk on Tuesday -- he’s dealing with a lower-body ailment -- meaning Detroit will play Philly for the second time in a row without its dynamic duo.

While Detroit has been getting healthier lately (Franzen, Darren Helm, Jonathan Ericsson and Daniel Alfredsson have all returned over the last week), it’s still dealing with a number of injury issues. Stephen Weiss, Jimmy Howard, Joakim Andersson and Cory Emmerton are all sidelined along with Datsyuk and Zetterberg.