Red Wings forwards Pulkkinen, Miller out with injuries

Detroit Red Wings forward Teemu Pulkkinen will miss 6-8 weeks with a dislocated shoulder and forward Drew Miller will be out six weeks with a broken jaw, general manager Ken Holland said Friday.

The injuries occurred in the first period of a 5-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.

"Those are two guys that are big part of us and who we are, and certainly I don't like to see guys go down," coach Jeff Blashill told the Red Wings website.

Pulkkinen's shoulder injury will not require surgery at this time. The 23-year-old, who has six goals and 11 points in 24 games, sustained the injury on a hit into the boards by Coyotes forward Martin Hanzal.

Miller will have plates implanted in his jaw during surgery Saturday. He had to be helped off the ice after the shoulder of Coyotes defenseman Klas Dahlbeck hit him in the head on a check. The 31-year-old has one goal and one assist in 26 games.

"It's never easy to see somebody go down or see your teammate get hurt," forward Darren Helm said. "[Miller is] a tough guy. He should be able to bounce back hopefully as soon as he can. He brings a lot to this hockey team. He's pretty fearless on the [penalty kill]. He's blocking a lot of shots for our team, doing a lot of good things. He forechecks hard, he's a big element of this team to miss, and we just hope for a quick recovery and gets back as soon as he can."

Blashill said Joakim Andersson and Tomas Jurco will play Saturday against the Nashville Predators (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-TN, FS-D).

"From a team aspect, one of the things that's extremely important in today's sports -- and certainly in the NHL -- is you have to rely on your depth," Blashill said. 'Everyone's going to go through injuries, we have at different points this year. ... So our depth has to come in and be great. I have full confidence that we can do that. Jurco and Andersson are both in the lineup tomorrow night. They haven't been sitting because they haven't played well enough, they've actually both played good when they've been in. Now they get an opportunity to play a little bit more."