Robby Fabbri is out for the Detroit Red Wings this weekend. Austin Czarnik is in.
To no one’s surprise, Detroit coach Derek Lalonde was confirming Friday that forward Fabbri, who suffered a lower-body injury in Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, won’t be playing in the Saturday-Sunday home-and-home set with the Boston Bruins.
“Fabbs won’t be available this weekend, but we’re fairly optimistic we’ll see him again this year and hopefully it’s not long-term,” Lalonde said.
Lalonde also was indicating that Fabbri had gone through testing to confirm that the injury is not related to Fabbri’s surgically-repaired ACL.
That being the case, the Red Wings are still opting to err on the side of caution with Fabbri, who’s undergone knee surgery on three previous occasions.
“Obviously, we’re going to be extremely cautious with it,” Lalonde said. “We’re optimistic it’s not long term.”
Lalonde indicated that he’d be moving Pius Suter into Fabbri’s slot among the top-six forwards. The Swiss player was skating on the wing with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond during practice on Friday.
Czarnik Familiar to Both Red Wings, Bruins
Detroit-born Czarnik served the Red Wings well during a 12-game recall earlier this season. He was collecting 2-1-3 totals while posting a +1 rating. With the Griffins, he’s third in scoring, couting 13-23-36 numbers through 42 games.
“We don’t miss a heck of a lot,” Lalonde acknowledged. (Grand Rapids forward Matt) Luff played a lot of games early on. Czarnik, we trust Czarnik. He gave us good minutes early on. We’ll plug him in, slot him and go.”
Undrafted, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Czarnik originally signed as a free agent with the Bruins after completing his college career with the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks in 2015. Playing 59 games for Boston, Czarnik would compile 5-12-17 numbers.
On Sept. 23, 2017 at 14:29 of the first period, it was Czarnik who scored the first-ever goal at Little Caesars Arena for Boston in an NHL preseason game against Detroit.
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