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The Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk hasn't played since the Jan. 1 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium.

(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News)

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings for the second year in a row rank among the NHL leaders in man-games lost due to injuries.

They overcame that adversity in 2013 with a late-season playoff push. This year it’s more challenging because more key players are or have been injured.

"It's great that we talk about these young guys, and they're good players, but we got a whole bunch of guys -- millions and millions of dollars -- that never seems to play," coach Mike Babcock said before Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Kings at Joe Louis Arena.

After the game, their 48th, the Red Wings' tally for man-games lost will be 202. Amazingly, that ranks only seventh in the league, according to mangameslost.com, which tracks NHL injuries (Pittsburgh was leading with 289 man-games lost).

The Red Wings ranked third in the league with 243 man-games lost during last year’s lockout-shortened 48-game season, which raises questions about why this team has been so injury-prone.

“In terms of fractured ribs, concussions and separated shoulders, that’s just part of the game,” general manager Ken Holland said. “We all expect groin injuries and hip flexors in September, at the start of training camp. Internally, we’re talking about why we’re having groin injuries in December and January.

“I’m not sure what we can do about it this year, but it’s something we’ll look at in the summer.”

Seven Red Wings have missed a total of 66 games with groin issues: Stephen Weiss (22), Darren Helm (21), Jonas Gustavsson (12), Daniel Alfredsson (five), Gustav Nyquist (three), Joakim Andersson (two) and Danny DeKeyser (one).

Babcock said they’ve looked into it but haven’t discovered a reason.

“We’ve been through all that, right through our medical room to our strength and training to how we condition our guys, the whole thing,” Babcock said. “The interesting thing is when we were old we never got hurt and now that we’re young we get hurt all the time. So why is that?

“Lots of things don’t add up in the short term. In the long term, you try to be scientific and solution-based; that’s how I try to coach and that’s how we try to run our team. In the short term, you can say we’re over-training our guys, spending too much time in the weight room, we don’t got it going in the medical room … I don’t buy any of that crap, really.”

Pavel Datsyuk (lower-body injury) hasn’t skated the past few days but remains day-to-day. Holland said doctors told Datsyuk to stay off the ice for a few days. He’s not expected to play Monday vs. St. Louis.

“His injury hasn’t responded the way we hoped,” Holland said. “See if (rest) helps. At some point he’s got to practice for 3-4 days in a row before playing.”

Alfredsson hasn’t been on the ice for a week due to inflammation in his lower back, Holland said.

“We’re giving him medication and time for it to settle down,” Holland said. “There’s no time frame.”

Andersson (groin) did not skate Saturday. Johan Franzen (concussion), Helm (groin) and Gustavsson (groin) all skated Saturday and remain day-to-day. Jonathan Ericsson (broken ribs) is close to returning.

Holland said of Franzen: “The protocol is if you have a few good days together we can talk about coming back. He hasn’t put 2-3 good days together without feeling quite right. When you’re dealing with a head issue, we’re going to be very conservative.”

Players called up from the Grand Rapids Griffins have done a good job and showed promise but they can’t come close to replacing the offense that is missing.

“As much as the other guys are digging in, you need a certain amount of depth in the league to have success,” Babcock said. “It’s easy to match-up against us. … Obviously, we need some guys back.”

Babcock noted that the four centers the team had slotted on its depth chart at the start of the season are out (Datsyuk, Weiss, Helm and Andersson). Three of their centers slated to play on Saturday would ordinarily be in Grand Rapids (Riley Sheahan, Cory Emmerton and Luke Glendening).

“It is tough to see guys not in the lineup, but I think they feel worse than we do,” Zetterberg said. “There’s nothing worse than being out. I went through it for 11 games (with a herniated disc) and it sucks.”

Zetterberg said 2013 showed that this team can gel late in the season and make a playoff run when healthy.

“We had a lot of new guys coming in and it took a while for us to play the way we wanted to,” Zetterberg said. “Guys came back for the last 20 games and we played well. It carried over into the playoffs. Hopefully, guys will come back for the last 20 games again this year and history will repeat itself.”