Jimmy-Howard-1-11-14

The Red Wings' Jimmy Howard made 44 saves in a 3-1 victory at Los Angeles on Saturday.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT – None of the Detroit Red Wings’ injured forwards will return for Thursday’s game at the New York Rangers (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

And it’s safe to say coach Mike Babcock is getting sick of talking about injuries.

“I’ve said this a number of times this year, enough to make me want to puke, is that I’m focused on the players that are here,” Babcock said after practice today at City ICE.

Pavel Datsyuk (lower-body) and Daniel Alfredsson (back spasms) did not practice today. Johan Franzen (concussion) and Darren Helm (groin) skated, but didn’t take part in line rushes or many drills.

At least goaltender Jimmy Howard expects to be ready after sitting out Sunday's game in Anaheim with a hip flexor sustained in Saturday's 3-1 victory at Los Angeles.



“Practiced again today and felt fine, so I’m good to go (Thursday),” Howard said.

“It sounds like (he’s playing),” Babcock said. “We’ll see after the morning skate.”

Howard said of his injury, “I knew it wasn’t going to be much from the other night (Saturday). More so than anything the muscle itself just felt really fatigued, felt it needed a bit of a break. Better to take one night off than to go out there and cause further harm and be out 2-3 weeks.”

Here are the lines and defense pairings they skated with today:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Justin Abdelkader

Tomas Jurco-Riley Sheahan-Todd Bertuzzi

Drew Miller-Joakim Andersson-Mikael Samuelsson

Daniel Cleary-Luke Glendening-Patrick Eaves

Niklas Kronwall-Brendan Smith

Kyle Quincey-Danny DeKeyser

Brian Lashoff-Jakub Kindl

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Petr Mrazek

Jonas Gustavsson (groin, not expected to dress)