Justin-Abdelkader-3-7-14

Justin Abdelkader, battling New Jersey's John Merrill, is lucky no tendons in his leg were severed from a skate blade.

(The Associated Press)

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader isn’t sure when he can start skating after being cut in the leg by a skate, but he’s feeling better and thankful the injury isn’t worse.

“See how it feels as we move along here,” Abdelkader said. “It’s slowly been getting better each day. I have to get my strength back and then the (range of) motion back and then kind of go from there.”

Abdelkader is estimated to be out up to two weeks after getting injured midway through the third period of Sunday's 4-1 loss at Chicago, when Ben Smith lost an edge and slid right into him, cutting his left leg right above the knee pad.

It required about a dozen stitches.

“I didn’t know how bad I was cut until I looked down at it and I could see it split open,” Abdelkader said. “Obviously, you don’t know the extent of the injury until trainers and doctors look at it.”

He joins the team’s long list of injured players.

“You’re disappointed at this time of year with the push that we’re trying to make and the injuries that we’ve already sustained; it’s frustrating,” Abdelkader said. “But at the same time I was lucky that I didn’t cut any tendons or it was worse than it was.

“It was really close. Doctor said I was really lucky that it didn’t cut one of my tendons. I got fortunate that way, but it’s a bad break.”

Helm experiencing more ‘good days’

Darren Helm (concussion) said he’s had three good skates in a row after experiencing a bad day on Sunday.

He’s not experiencing many symptoms, but he doesn’t have a time frame on his return.

“I need to sit down with everybody and decide,” Helm said.

“We still haven’t had a (full) practice. I was hoping today would be that test for me to see if I would be able to hold up through a full team practice. Didn’t do that (they had an optional skate).”

Gustavsson getting closer to return

Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, who injured his groin on March 7, said he’s close to returning.

“We’ll see if it’s tomorrow or this weekend or when it is,” Gustavsson said. “But I felt good on the ice today.”

This is the third time this season Gustavsson has been idled by a groin issue.

“It’s one thing if you break your leg or something like that; you know for sure that you can’t move,” Gustavsson said. “But with groin injuries, it can feel good for maybe the last week before you go on the ice.”

Gustavsson said it’s frustrating because he feels fine off the ice.

“It’s not something you can play through the pain because it’s just going to make it worse,” he said. “You feel like you’re so close all the time to be back out there, but especially as a goalie, you really need to be 100 percent because otherwise it’s a matter of days before you hurt it again.”

He added, “As a goalie, it’s all those small muscles; you need all of them to be able to perform. As a goalie, if you’re five percent off, that means maybe a couple extra goals a game and that’s going to cost you the game, so you really need to be patient and let it heal.”