Red Wings bolt for southern climes at break of dawn

Danny DeKeyser, be warned: Your teammates will abandon you like a broken stick.

The Detroit Red Wings made like teenagers on spring break today, with many having scheduled break-of-dawn flights to get closer to the equator. The Wings will have five whole days to relish the All-Star break, all the better after racking up a five-game winning streak with a Tuesday victory over the Minnesota Wild.

The Wings, as of this afternoon, were without a representative at this weekend's NHL All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio, because their sole selection, goalie Jimmy Howard, had to pull out because of injury. The only way a Wings player will make it is if an All-Star skater gets hurt tonight and requires a replacement.

But don't count on it. Tomas Tatar, highly eligible with 21 goals, was headed out of town today, too, and sounded like he'd be turning off his phone.

Wings forward Riley Sheahan was part of a group headed to Cancun, Mexico. "There's probably not going to be much hockey talk," he said. "It's just going to be relaxation. It'll be nice. I think everyone is looking forward to the break. We don't get time to relax that often, so it'll be good to spend some time just laying low."

Defenseman Brendan Smith was headed to Turks and Caicos with younger brother Reilly, who plays for the Boston Bruins. "We'll both go and hang out and get lots of sun," Brendan Smith said. "It's a good time to get away from the game."

Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson said he, his wife and their 15-month-old daughter are "going someplace warm. But if I lived in Florida, I think I would go to a snowy place where I can ski."

Petr Mrazek and Stephen Weiss also were headed to Florida, Weiss to visit his wife's parents. The veteran forward said that the All-Star break is timed perfectly because "you're past the halfway mark. Guys can use a few days to rest some things they've got going on physically, and also take a few days off mentally to prepare for that second-half charge. That's when the pace amps up and points become more crucial, so it's important to be fresh for that stretch. And these few days should help that."

Possibly the Wing with the swankiest destination is Justin Abdelkader, who had a trip planned to Peter Island, a private island in the British Virgin Islands with one hotel that has just 52 rooms. He was among several Wings scheduled to begin the morning with a 6:30 flight to Atlanta. For a group used to having radio play-by-play man Ken Kal be their version of TSA security, it begged the question of who might flunk actual TSA screening.

"Danny DeKeyser," Abdelkader said without hesitation. "He'll have something on him that he'll forget about, some liquid, and that'll get confiscated. We wouldn't wait for him. We'd tell him to catch the next flight."

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.