Discouraging Red Wings health updates released

Though the Detroit Red Wings were able to mount a comeback effort on Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars, they would ultimately fall short by one goal. The services of Patrick Kane certainly could have helped, but they've been without him since he suffered a yet-to-be-disclosed lower body injury earlier this month against the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Kane recently returned to practice, skating at Detroit's practice facility inside of Little Caesars Arena but has yet to be cleared for contact. It's looking more and more like Kane will make his return to the Red Wings lineup after the All-Star break, which starts after Detroit's game on January 31 at home against the Ottawa Senators; they won't be in action again until February 10 against the Vancouver Canucks. 

“(Kane) skated pre-practice, participated in the warm-up drill and then no contact,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde explained of Kane's status on Wednesday. “So I think a positive step for him. Get a better feel on how he feels today. Kind of in that gray area. Does it make sense for that last game or two before the break or give him the eight days after the break. So, we’ll have a better feel when we see how his body felt after today.”

Meanwhile, Chiarot has been absent since suffering a lower body injury against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 19, and it's all but certain that he won't be back until after the break as well.

“It’s becoming more and more likely probably post-break,” Lalonde said. “Might just give him the time to heal completely. Still potential for one of the last two games. Same gray area as Patty, whether it makes sense to play him in the last game or two or take full advantage of the time off we’ll have from the All-Star break.”

“It’s a credit to Ben Chiarot, how much we’ve missed him over two games, that’s where his game was at,” Lalonde continued. “The way he was playing, that was probably one injury we wanted to try to avoid. It’s on the rest of our group to pick up their game.”

Kane has fit in extremely well with Detroit, producing at nearly a point-per-game pace with seven goals and nine assists in 19 games since joining Detroit in late November. Chiarot has enjoyed a bounce back season, having scored three goals with nine assists and a +3 rating before his injury.

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