So is Bertuzzi ready to kill penalties Wednesday against the Boston Bruins?
"I'll let you know after I watch the tape from practice today," Blashill said. "We were filming and we'll see how he does. If he's making a bunch of right reads then it gives us a chance that maybe he's our sixth guy. Certainly Double-A (Andreas Athanasiou) can be our sixth guy. We've got five that we've got lots of confidence in so I'm not in a huge rush to go to a sixth necessarily but you certainly want to have those guys available to you given penalties and injuries and things like that. So we filmed him today and we'll watch it and help correct any mistakes and see where his reads are at."
Glendening, Justin Abdelkader, Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen and Jacob de la Rose are the Wings' top five penalty-killing forwards.
"I did it a little bit in junior but I've been in on all the meetings, I'm watching video on it, do I'm a little familiar with it," Bertuzzi said. "I just gotta get through the reps like I did in practice."
Although he did not kill penalties when he was with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins, Bertuzzi has the kind of hockey sense that could help him do so in the NHL.
"Just stay poised," Bertuzzi said. "You gotta be smart, have a good stick, not get running around and just stay composed."
The penalty kill is one of Glendening's strengths so Bertuzzi can always go to him with any questions.
"That's who I was working with today, going through the routes and what to do in the zone," Bertuzzi said. "I think Nielsen is another good guy to talk to."
HELM OUT LONG-TERM: The news on Helm was expected but still not good.
Helm is expected to miss six to eight weeks with the upper-body injury he suffered when he was hit from behind by New Jersey Devils forward Travis Zajac in the first period of Saturday's game.
"Lots of speed, lots of grit," Bertuzzi said. "(Helm) works extremely hard and he's a big penalty killer for us. It sucks."
Helm, who had been playing on the top line with Larkin and Anthony Mantha, had one goal, five assists and was minus-5 in 20 games.
"It's a little disappointing," Blashill said. "I said yesterday, I think work ethic and competition level separates people in this league and I think everybody is so close talent-wise that lots of times the one way you can separate yourself as a team or as a player is through your work ethic and competition and that's what he embodies, that's what he is, that's why he's been a real good player and that's why he helps us win hockey games. So certainly disappointing he's going to be out for a while, disappointing for him given the history of the injuries that he's had."
BANGED-UP BRUINS: The Boston Bruins are going through what the Wings have gone through this season, a spate of injuries.
Top center Patrice Bergeron plus defensemen Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and John Moore will all miss the game in Detroit.
"It's a long list and as I spoke of earlier, health is a huge factor in the NHL today because the longer you go without real players, the harder it is to win," Blashill said. "I think they played real good against Arizona, they were missing a bunch of guys. I watched that game, I thought they were real good in large part of it but certainly when you're missing key guys, it takes its toll over a period of time. We won't feel sorry for them at all, we've missed our own fair share of guys and we'll try to do everything we can to win."
Defenseman Kevan Miller has been out with injury but is expected to return against the Wings.
"Obviously (Bergeron's) a big loss for them and I think a couple of D are hurt," Bertuzzi said. "But they have a lot of young, skilled guys that work hard -- (David) Pastrnak, (Brad) Marchand - they have a lot of guys that will step up, so we just got to be ready still."
Pastrnak leads the league with 17 goals (eight on the power play) in 20 games, two ahead of Washington's Alex Ovechkin. He also has eight assists.
Marchand has six goals (three on the power play) and 15 assists.
"Pastrnak and Marchand are obviously two guys you got to look out for," Gustav Nyquist said. "Seems like they have a pretty good power play clicking, too. It'll be a good test for us."
The Bruins are third in the league on the power play, which is hitting on 29.8 percent of their chances.
