"Obviously it wasn't anything that popped or I didn't feel anything in that sense but just hard to move and a little bit sore. But it feels good. Trainers did a great job of getting me back."
Green had a goal in each of the previous two games before he was injured.
"A wise man told me to shoot the puck recently," Green said. "So when you sort of think that way I think you create more chances for yourself. Not only that, great plays by other guys on the ice."
He didn't reveal the identity of the wise man but said, "It was a bunch of them, Detroit scouts and management."
The Red Wings have won three straight and face the Avalanche in a prelude to their Coors Light NHL Stadium Series game at Coors Field on Saturday, Feb. 27.
The Avalanche didn't skate Friday, but goalie Semyon Varlamov will start for the second straight night, according to the Denver Post.
Colorado defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Thursday as forward Jarome Iginla scored two goals to give him 604 for his career, four behind Dino Ciccarelli for 17th on the all-time list. Nathan MacKinnon and Blake Comeau also scored for the Avalanche.
The win broke Colorado's four-game losing streak.
"It was a big win for us when it hasn't been going our way," Iginla said after the game. "For them to come back and to make a very close game of it and to hold them off in the third period and play a good, smart game with the lead, it definitely feels good. Now we want to keep going."
Here are the projected lineups:
AVALANCHE
Gabriel Landeskog - Carl Soderberg - Blake Comeau
Alex Tanguay - Nathan MacKinnon - Cody McLeod
Mikhail Grigorenko - John Mitchell - Matt Duchene
Andreas Martinsen - Chris Wagner - Jarome Iginla
Francois Beauchemin - Erik Johnson
Nick Holden - Tyson Barrie
Chris Bigras - Andrew Bodnarchuk
Semyon Varlamov
Calvin Pickard
Injured: Jesse Winchester (concussion), Brad Stuart (back surgery), Reto Berra (ankle) , Jack Skille (concussion)
Scratched: Nate Guenin, Zach Redmond
RED WINGS
Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Justin Abdelkader
Tomas Tatar - Brad Richards - Dylan Larkin
Gustav Nyquist - Andreas Athanasiou - Tomas Jurco
Riley Sheahan - Luke Glendening - Darren Helm
Kyle Quincey - Danny DeKeyser
Brendan Smith - Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson - Alexey Marchenko
Petr Mrazek
Jimmy Howard
Injured: Niklas Kronwall (knee), Drew Miller (knee), Johan Franzen (concussion)
Scratched: Teemu Pulkkinen, Jakub Kindl
Status update: Kindl, who played in place of Green when he was out, will be a scratch.
Who's hot: Iginla has a four-game point streak (two goals, four assists) … Datsyuk has a three-game point streak (two goals, three assists).
