Notes: Glendening to miss at least four weeks

BOSTON - Luke Glendening gets very little attention compared to his teammates but his contributions are going to be dearly missed.
Glendening left Wednesday's game in Philadelphia late in the first period after suffering a right hand injury. He had played six shifts for 2:58.

Glendening blocked a slap shot by Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald in the defensive zone at 14:37 of the opening period.
Wings coach Jeff Blashill revealed after Friday's practice that the news was not good for Glendening.
"Timeline-wise it looks like it's going to be a minimum of four weeks," Blashill said. "We'll know more as we continue through, but right now timeline looks like minimum of four weeks."
Glendening leads the team in penalty kill ice time at 2:40 per game, in penalty kill blocks with 12 and in penalty kill face-offs, winning 40 of 72 for 55.6 percent.
"He's a big part of our PK," said fellow penalty-killer Frans Nielsen. "He really sacrifices his body out there, blocking shots, best guy on the face-offs, too. We're going to miss him a lot. Not only on the PK, but 5-on-5, too. Hopefully, he'll be back soon with us."
Andreas Athanasiou could get more penalty kill time with Glendening out.
"He's got to make sure when he goes out there, the chances are minimum and he doesn't get scored on," Blashill said. "That's a big thing. When you're trying to earn your spot and earn more ice time, especially when you miss the beginning of the year and the PK is going good, if you go out and get scored on, it's hard to keep going. So he's got to go out there and do a real good job and our PK hasn't been as good lately. So let's do a real good job of shutting people down."
Glendening is best on the team in overall face-offs at 59.4 percent and is second in blocks with 38 to Trevor Daley's 51.
"I was just looking at the stats," Blashill said. "This is a tough one tomorrow. (Patrice) Bergeron takes tons of face-offs and he's great and he's right-handed and that's a tough match for us. That is an area where we'll really miss Luke, especially the right dot, in your own end, PK and D zone.
"We're going to have to dig in for sure, guys are going to have to be better at it. I think Larks (Dylan Larkin) and Z (Henrik Zetterberg) have both worked real hard in getting better. I think Nielsen still has a ways to go in that right dot, so he's going to have to really dig in."
Glendening also is third on the team in hits with 74. Darren Helm leads with 84 and Justin Abdelkader is second with 78.
Although he has averaged just 13:31 in ice time, Glendening already has seven goals in 34 games, including a shorthanded marker.
"Two things. One, good for Glennie that he's played so good that everybody I've talked to has said to me that's a big loss," Blashill said. "I think that shows what a good job he's done. The second part of that is this is sports. You have to absorb injuries and other guys got to step up, so other people are going to have to step up, whether it's on the PK or five on five. Certainly, it gives an opportunity to a guy like Bert (Tyler Bertuzzi)."
BERTUZZI BACK: Bertuzzi practiced with the Wings at Boston's TD Garden Friday afternoon.
The 22-year-old forward found out after the Grand Rapids Griffins played in Chicago against the Wolves in an early game Thursday that he was returning to the Wings.
Bertuzzi arrived in Boston around 9 p.m. Thursday night.
"Every time I've been called up, I've been excited," Bertuzzi said. "I don't think too much into it, just day by day is kind of what it is right now in my career, anything can happen. I'm just excited to be here and excited to play."
Bertuzzi played Dec. 9 for the Wings against the St. Louis Blues when David Booth couldn't go but returned to the Griffins shortly thereafter.
With Glendening out a month, Bertuzzi could have a more extended opportunity to show what he can do.
"In this business you take it game by game but I said early in the year, guys like that you'd like them not to be on a roller coaster," Blashill said. "I think Tyler's job now is to make us keep him."
After suffering a wrist injury in the preseason, Bertuzzi lost out on a chance to make the Wings out of camp.
Since returning to the lineup after missing nine games, Bertuzzi has seven goals and seven assists in 16 games with the Griffins. That includes yesterday's game in Chicago in which Bertuzzi had two power-play goals and an assist.
"Obviously it takes a couple weeks to get the game back and just the physical aspect, mental and I feel like I got it back," Bertuzzi said. "I feel really good, I'm skating well, I'm making some good plays and I feel really good."
Bertuzzi played in the preseason at TD Garden so he knows the Bruins a little bit.
"We know all their skill guys, (David) Pastrnak, (Brad) Marchand, you know who to kind of look out for," Bertuzzi said. "I think I know how they play, played a lot of preseason games against them in the last four years now. So it's kind of a familiar rink, so that's going to help a lot."
In practice, Bertuzzi skated on a line with Nielsen and Helm.
"I remember my first (NHL) game in Philly, I played with Fransy and Double-A (Athanasiou)," Bertuzzi said. "He's a solid centerman to play with, he's hard on pucks and makes it simple for his wingers. I'm excited for that opportunity."
Nielsen said he was looking forward to playing with the young winger.
"He's got all the talent in the world, he's a talented young guy and I'm excited to play with him tomorrow," Nielsen said. "He plays hard but at the same time he's got some good hands and can make plays. He's a good all-around player."
Blashill has generally been using Nielsen's line to match up with opponents' top lines.
"It's harder on the road to get your matches, so I'm not necessarily worried about that as much as on that line, both Nielsen and Helmer like to play north-south and Bert has north-south in his game, not that he can't do other things, but he's certainly a north-south type player," Blashill said. "I just thought it gives him a chance to get minutes. He won't really spend much time on specialty teams tomorrow, so it'll give him a chance to get some minutes without those specialty team minutes."
BOSTON TOUGH TEAM, TOUGH PLACE: Similar to Philadelphia, the Wings have not had a ton of success in Boston.
The last time the Wings won in Boston was a 1-0 victory on April 18, 2014, the first game of the playoffs, with Pavel Datsyuk getting the only goal and Jimmy Howard recording a 25-save shutout.
Howard is expected to start Saturday.
The last regular-season win for the Wings in Boston was a 3-2 victory on Oct. 14, 2013, with Zetterberg, Stephen Weiss and Dan Cleary scoring.
"Just like Philly, every game has a life of its own," Blashill said. "There's no reason why we couldn't have went into Philly and won. We were in position to win the game, we got to win it. There's no reason we can't come in here and win. They're a good team, it's a good building, but there's no reason."
Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask might be one reason the Wings have struggled in Boston and he's playing extremely well of late.
He is 6-0-1 with a 1.45 goals-against average and .947 save percentage in his last eight games.
"It seems like we struggle with every goalie right now, but we got to keep saying the same things - got to get in front of them," Nielsen said. "Every goalie in this league is good when they see the puck, so you got to try to get in there and get some of those goals where you make it hard on them."
The Wings are likely fighting for the third spot in the Atlantic Division, currently occupied by the Bruins, who have 41 points in 33 games. The Wings have 33 points in 34 games.
"Those are the guys we're chasing right now, so we don't want to get too far behind, so it's a huge game here," Nielsen said.
The Bruins beat the Wings, 3-2 in overtime Dec. 13 at Little Caesars Arena.
"We're at critical stages here, we got to win hockey games," Blashill said. "We haven't won enough. We know that. We didn't win enough when we were at home, now you got to win these road games. Certainly against a team that is occupying the spot you want, you got to knock them off if you want to catch them."