DETROIT -- Defenseman Niklas Kronwall skated Thursday morning with a new knee brace that he hopes will better support his injured left knee. But he missed his fourth consecutive game for the Red Wings.



"It feels better today than yesterday, so I'm taking a step in the right direction," Kronwall said.



Kronwall hopes to play Saturday against Ottawa but said he might be forced to withdraw from the Swedish Olympic team if he misses that game, too. He has kept Swedish coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson updated with his progress.



"But at the same time, my focus right now has to be coming back to play for the Red Wings," Kronwall said. "We have a couple of huge games before the break, we want to do everything we can to win those games."



Babcock said he has no idea about Kronwall's status.



"We brought him back from injury (sprained MCL) way longer after we expected. We thought he was out for four weeks and then he was out for forever," Babcock said. "We thought he was as healthy as can be. He kind of got hit from behind in the leg (in San Jose on Feb. 2) and then he was fine, no problem. He practiced the other day, was fine. He got on the plane, he couldn't move."



Odds & ends

• Following Thursday's 3-2 shootout loss, Babcock said he will split Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg to give the club more balance, now that it has more depth.



"That line (with Johan Franzen) was very dominant (Thursday)," Babcock said. "Now, we'll split those guys up, Pav and Z, and we'll get four lines and can really come at teams and make sure each line has a net presence on it. We didn't do it today because we hadn't practiced with it. But that's been our plan here for a while, and we'll spread that out."



• Tomas Holmstrom returned after missing one game with a bone bruise in his left knee. He played on the fourth line with Drew Miller and Jason Williams and on the first power-play unit. He had one assist in 13:28.