Jimmy Howard To Start For Red Wings Against Predators On Friday

Ty Conklin has started four straight games for the Detroit Red Wings, and he's been up and down in those appearances. Fortunately for Detroit, their biggest injured name appears to be ready to return, goaltender Jimmy Howard. The Red Wings themselves on twitter confirmed that Howard will be between the pipes against the Nashville Predators on Friday.

NEWS: Jimmy Howard will get the start tonight vs. Nashville.

Howard sat out most of February with a finger injury as well as a large chunk of March with a groin injury. His missed time in March -- alongside a bunch of other injured players -- has not been kind to the Wings, plenty of losses in March have marred their schedule. With all of their injured players returning including Howard, their fortunes should improve with the playoffs right around the corner.

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The Detroit Red Wings are hoping to have most of their injury woes ironed out by the time the NHL Playoffs begin, but nothing is guaranteed at this point. Goaltender Jimmy Howard is the biggest name still injured, and his return timetable has been all over the place. It's been that way for awhile now, with a broken finger keeping him out most of February, which was followed by a groin injury that made him miss some time in March.

Most recently, he aggravated the groin injury and has been out since exiting a March 19 game against the Washington Capitals. Originally, Howard said he expected to be back in action on March 24 against the Carolina Hurricanes, but two days later, and he's still not back. On Monday, they'll play the Columbus Blue Jackets without Howard.

Fortunately, there is now another "target" date for Howard's return. According to Ansar Khan on Twitter, Howard expects to be in net on Friday against the Nashville Predators. Nothing is confirmed yet, especially given how his other timetables have fell apart. This means that Howard will also miss the other half of the home-and-home against the Blue Jackets on Wednesday, either way.

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The Detroit Red Wings are really struggling to get their goalie position sorted out, with Jimmy Howard and Joey MacDonald both injured. There's no timetable for return of the latter, who still has to get more opinions regarding his back injury, while the former is day-to-day with a groin injury. In a Tweet on Wednesday, Helene St. James noted that Howard thinks he could be a backup in goal on Wednesday if needed, but that he doesn't have to.

That's because Ty Conklin has cleared waivers and will be in action on Wednesday night when the Red Wings take on the New York Rangers. It's a good opportunity for Conklin to get back in the team's good graces after he was significantly outplayed by MacDonald when Howard was out with a broken finger.

It's also good because that means Jordan Pearce won't have to start, and will serve as the backup instead. Pearce has never stared a game in the NHL and needless to say, the Red Wings didn't want to make his first come down the stretch leading to the playoffs. Howard is hopeful that he can play Saturday, though.

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Jimmy Howard just cannot stay healthy (joining the ranks of many other players on the Detroit Red Wings). According to mlive.com, Howard has suffered another groin injury, and is back to being day-to-day on the injury front. He already has missed three games in March due to the groin injury, leaving a March 4 meeting with the Chicago Blackhawks. He missed three games before returning to play Los Angeles on March 13, and was in net on Monday against the Washington Capitals, a 5-3 loss.

The article does say that general manager Ken Holland has said that Howard's injury is not serious and that he is officially day-to-day with the injury. Still, the team has recalled Ty Conklin from the Grand Rapids Griffins on an emergency basis. He'll likely clear the re-entry waivers and be in New York for the game against the Rangers on Wednesday.

Howard also played just four games in the month of February with a broken finger. It seems he just can't escape the injury bug, a worrying sign as the season nears its end, with guys like Darren Helm and Johan Franzen also on the injury list.

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Following Saturday night's 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators, the Red Wings didn't practice today, but General Manager Ken Holland made a couple moves to coincide with some of the Red Wings laundry list of injury problems. One move was to resend goaltender Jordan Pearce back to Grand Rapids because Holland expects Howard to play on Tuesday:

General manager Ken Holland told the Free Press that goaltender Jimmy Howard, who has missed the past three games with a sore groin, is ready to return Tuesday when the Wings play at Los Angeles, so that eliminates the need for Pearce.

Howard was dealing with a lower body injury, which he suffered shortly after returning from a broken finger.

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Detroit Red Wings No. 1 goaltender Jimmy Howard is not traveling with the team and obviously will not play Tuesday in a inter-conference game at the Philadelphia Flyers. According to reports via Twitter, Howard says he's listed as "day-to-day" after suffering a lower body injury in Sunday's 2-1 loss against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Howard did say that he's hopeful for a return Friday when the Red Wings host the Los Angeles Kings.

In the meantime, its expected that Joey MacDonald will be between the pipes for Detriot. Earlier in the year, MacDonald earned the back up job after Howard missed some time with a broken finger.

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As the second period began in Detroit, Joey MacDonald lined up between the pipes for the Red Wings. Starting goaltender Jimmy Howard was mysteriously absent after being in net for the first period. Quickly the Red Wings declared him as day-to-day, although initially it wasn't clear what was wrong with him. Now we have some details but nothing too specific.

Holland tells Free Press: Howard is day-to-day, lower body injury

— Helene St. James (@freepwings) March 4, 2012

Howard missed quite a bit of time last month with a broken finger. This is what allowed MacDonald to join the team and take over the backup goaltending job. Howard made his return on Feb. 21, and Sunday's game was his fourth appearance since coming back from the injury.

While Howard's new injury does not appear to be serious, it doesn't seem he will be coming back into the game against the Chicago Blackhawks. After Sunday, the Red Wings' next game is Tuesday at the Philadelphia Flyers, so expect an update on Monday about his status for that game.

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On Monday, the Detroit Red Wings placed goaltender Ty Conklin on waivers following the return of Jimmy Howard from a Feb. 2 injury that broke his finger. Conklin had been on the roster as Howard's backup all season, but Joey MacDonald put together a string of impressive outings to make his case to remain on the roster as the immediate backup. So Conklin was the odd man out.

According to MLive.com, Conklin has cleared waivers and has been assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins. He went just 3-5-0 with an .878 save percentage, and just didn't look impressive in net. Detroit has a good defense, but they do rely heavily on Howard to get things done a good portion of the time. Conklin wasn't able to step up and carry the team.

He'll likely get significant playing time with the Griffins and be on standby if MacDonald should falter in his backup duties. MacDonald should play a bit more as the playoffs get closer to keep Howard fresh, so there are opportunities there for Conklin. Howard is back in action on Tuesday when the Red Wings take on the Chicago Blackhawks.

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As the Detroit Red Wings are finally expecting to have their starting goaltender, Jimmy Howard, back from a broken finger that has kept him out since the injury on Feb. 2, they've made a move to get back to two goalies on the roster. Ansar Khan of MLive.com is reporting that the team has placed Ty Conklin on waivers.

This move was expected, given the recent play of Joey MacDonald. When Howard was injured, Conklin was the immediate backup while MacDonald was the guy going back and forth between the majors and Grand Rapids. Conklin didn't get much of a shot to show that he should keep his job when Howard went down with an injury, as the Red Wings stuck with the hot hand in MacDonald. Conklin had already lost six of his 10 starts on the season prior to the injury.

He then would lose on Feb. 4, to the Edmonton Oilers and it was all Joey MacDonald from there. Well, almost, as MacDonald would go on to lose on Feb. 6, but the Red Wings then won six-straight games with MacDonald at the helm. He had save percentages of .939, .952 and .952 in his last three outings.

Conklin is expected to clear waivers and be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins.

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Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard, who has been out since Feb. 2 with a broken finger, is not quite ready to return to the ice. Ansar Khan of MLive.com tweeted that Howard will not start on Sunday against the San Jose Sharks.

Babcock said MacDonald starts sunday vs. sharks. howard gets couple more days and will start in chicago tues.

Instead, Joey MacDonald will again get the start, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, as the the Red Wings have won five straight with MacDonald starting. MacDonald has impressed, while Ty Conklin, who was the immediate backup, has not fared nearly as well.

Howard, who last started in a shootout win against the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 2, will get a few more days to heal up before starting against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.

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The Detroit Red Wings will be without their star goaltender for another game, as Jimmy Howard is set to miss Saturday's game against the Nashville Predators with a broken finger, according to the Detroit Free Press. Howard has been out since Feb. 2 with said broken finger and the team was hoping he'd be prepared to face Nashville. Howard himself had called it a "realistic goal" that he return to face the Predators. Maybe he's ready to go and they're just being safe.

Definitely a possibility given their next opponent following Nashville, the San Jose Sharks. The two rivals are set to play on Sunday, and head coach Mike Babcock has already named Howard the starter for that game. Detroit will need him in net against San Jose, a Western Conference rival, and could really have the advantage, given the circumstances. If Howard really is good to go, he's well-rested and taking on a Sharks team that is on a nine-game road trip and has its second back-to-back this week, before a short rest prior to the game against Detroit.

Though injury is never a good thing, it has given the Red Wings a little more of a look at their backup situation, where Joey MacDonald has come into his own and looked like the better goalie. Ty Conklin, the immediate backup, hasn't played nearly as well, so the Red Wings could make the move to try to send him down to the minors following the Nashville game.

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Jimmy Howard has been out with a broken right index finger since the Red Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout on February 2. Howard is inching closer to a return, though, as he faced shots in practice on Saturday for the first time since injuring the finger.

According to MLIVE, Howard is aiming for a Friday return vs. Nashville:

"The finger felt good, the rest of me felt awful,'' Howard said. "I guess that comes with the territory after taking 10 days off with no shots. (The finger) felt good out there. Now let's see how it feels tomorrow and hopefully it keeps getting better.'' [...]

"There's no reason to rush back,'' Howard said. "Give it a couple more days to heal and allow me to get a couple of more practices under my belt, so I can get my game back to where it was.''

He said the pain is gone.

"After taking shots today, see how it feels tomorrow and getting back to where I was before, playing-wise,'' Howard said.

When Howard returns, he will play with the notch cut out of his stick to make it easier to handle.

Joey MacDonald will start on Sunday when the Red Wings go for an NHL record 20 straight home wins.

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After Jimmy Howard broke his finger in Thursday night's shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks, early speculation was that Howard would miss up to two weeks. On Friday morning, the Red Wings issued a press release stating that they had recalled Joey MacDonald from the AHL and Howard would miss just two games before being reevaluated in Detroit on Tuesday.

The report now, from MLIVE, is that Howard is more likely to miss two weeks, if not longer:

Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard acknowledged today that he will miss more than two games because of his broken right index finger.

But he really isn't sure how long he'll be out. He tossed out two weeks as an estimate, but is confident he'll return before the four-to-six weeks doctors in Vancouver told him it would take for the finger to heal.

"I don't really know what the time line is, to be honest,'' Howard said. "Hopefully, it's only a couple of weeks. I was just throwing a number out there.

"I haven't been told two weeks, but when they said four-to-six weeks (to heal), I was like there's no chance I'm going to be out for six. Two weeks sounded right.''

If it's two weeks, Howard should be back by the February 17 game against Nashville, which airs on NHL Network. Actually, the Red Wings have four straight games starting with that Preds game on national television, so hopefully Howard can return in that block of time.

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