When veteran defenseman Mike Green was healthy, the 2018-19 Detroit Red Wings were a pretty good team.
Unfortunately, like so many of Detroit's defensemen, Green was unable to stay in the lineup.
On Opening Night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Wings played four rookie defensemen in Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek, Joe Hicketts and Libor Sulak.
Green's illness and the Wings' injuries led to a 1-7-2 start. Green returned Oct. 26 and the Wings went 9-3 in their next 12 games.
But then Green went down with a lower-body injury, missing 13 more games, and the Wings only won two games during that span.
Green, who is entering the final year of his two-year, $10.75 million contract, is expected to be fully healthy for the start of training camp next month after a full summer to recover and train.
850 -- On Nov. 23, appropriately at Washington, Green played in his 800th career game. Green had five shots in 20:27 and finished minus-1 in the 3-1 loss to the Capitals.
250 -- On Feb. 17 at Philadelphia, Green played his 250th game with the Red Wings. In the 3-1 loss to the Flyers, Green had one shot, four blocked shots and was plus-1.
39 -- It was not Green's healthiest season of his career. He missed a team-high 39 games, including the first nine games of the season and the last 17 games of the season because of a virus.
5 -- The veteran defenseman scored five goals, tied with rookie Filip Hronek and Danny DeKeyser for second among team blueliners. Rookie Dennis Cholowski was first with seven. Dylan Larkin was first on the team in goals with 32.
21 -- In just 43 games, Green recorded 21 assists, second among Wings defensemen. Niklas Kronwall was first with 24 assists. Larkin was the overall assist leader with 41.
10 -- In an eight-game span from Nov. 13-Dec. 1, Green collected 10 points (2-8-10).
3 -- On Nov. 13 in a 6-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes, Green had a season-high three points (1-2-3). Green also had a three-game assist streak from Oct. 28-Nov. 1.
56 -- Green was tied for fifth on the team in blocked shots with Jonathan Ericsson with 56. Luke Glendening led with 102, Kronwall was second with 96, DeKeyser was third with 94. Former Wing Nick Jensen was fourth with 79.
21:41 -- Green was third on the team in average ice time at 21:41. DeKeyser was first at 21:58 and Larkin was second at 21:51.
