Niklas Kronwall placed on LTIR, Riley Sheahan is sick

It looks like Niklas Kronwall’s recovery from surgery may be taking longer than anticipated. The Detroit Red Wings placed him on retroactive Long-Term Injured Reserve today, ruling him out for just a little bit longer than before. As well, it appears that Riley Sheahan is doubtful for Wednesday’s game against Tampa Bay.

Kronwall underwent a knee scope procedure on January 19th and was originally projected to be out of the lineup for 2-4 weeks. This gave him a stretch chance of returning to the lineup as early as Wednesday, but obviously, the Wings are being a bit more patient than that with their veteran defender.

The placement of Kronwall on Long-Term IR requires that he stay out of the lineup for a minimum of ten games, including the ones that he’s already missed. This means that the earliest that he can return to the lineup is on Valentines Day against the Boston Bruins, a date that Jeff Blashill mentioned that the team were targeting.

As well, Riley Sheahan missed today’s practice with an undefined illness. Ignoring the calendar slip up in the tweet above, there’s been no indication as to whether or not he’ll be able to play on Wednesday night. Sheahan is obviously not a superstar by any means, but losing just about anybody for any period of time is a less-than-opportune scenario; especially when they’ve been available for every other game this season. So far this year, Sheahan has thirteen points.