Detroit Red Wings benched Justin Abdelkader. Was it a one-time thing, or the new normal?

Helene St. James | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Jeff Blashill on benching Detroit Red Wings' Justin Abdelkader Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader isn't used to being a healthy scratch. He shared his thought on it on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019.

It speaks to how far Justin Abdelkader’s play has dropped that his coach is willing to make him a healthy scratch.

The Detroit Red Wings enter Saturday's game in Toronto on a two-game losing streak. Whether the lineup that night will include Abdelkader is something coach Jeff Blashill has yet to decide, but the point has been made he is willing to bench Abdelkader.

That’s what happened Tuesday, when Abdelkader found out he wouldn’t play against the Columbus Blue Jackets before the morning skate when he saw the lineup posted.

“You’re disappointed, but hey listen, I just want to go out and be better and try to maximize each time I’m on the ice,” Abdelkader said Thursday. “When things aren’t going well, it’s tough and you’re going to see different lineups, different things happen. I just have to be ready and work to make sure when my number is called again, I am ready to go.”

Abdelkader has three assists in 20 games. He missed 15 games spanning two stretches while sidelined by a lower-body injury and a hand injury from blocking a shot. At 6-feet-2 and 213 pounds, he is among the bigger forwards on the team, but he has struggled to use that size to find a way to make an impact. It has put Blashill in a spot he doesn’t like to be in with an 11-year veteran and alternate captain.

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“First of all, I think Justin is a great person, a great pro, has been a really good Red Wing, cares a ton about being a Red Wing,” Blashill said. “I don’t even like to put him in a position where we have to talk about this, because he works hard. He competes hard.

“What’s the message? He’s just got to play a little bit better. At the end of the day, he’s in a group of guys that different guys could sit at different times. We made the decision to sit him the other night. Whether that moves forward or not, we’ll see. I’ll decide the lineup on Saturday. But I expect him to do a couple of things – one is to work like crazy to get back in and I know he will, and one is to be a great mentor in how he handles this adversity, and I know he will do that as well.”

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Abdelkader said he knows he has to be better. The question is, can he? He has not had a good offensive year since 2015-16, when he posted 19 goals and 23 assists in 82 games, most of them on a line with Pavel Datsyuk. Abdelkader tallied 13 goals and 22 assists in 2017-18, but last season he was down to six goals and 13 assists.

Abdelkader averages 12:43 minutes per game, and is a regular on the penalty kill with 1:41 minutes per game. He has seen spot-duty on power plays, mostly in relief of an injured player.

“The hard part is certainly, any time you work your way to where you’re kind of a bubble guy, which there are a few different guys on the team that are in that spot, you’re not getting many minutes and you’re not getting prime minutes,” Blashill said. “It’s hard to do a lot in that time.”

Abdelkader is among underperforming forwards that includes Frans Nielsen (two assists in 32 games), Brendan Perlini (two assists in 21 games), Adam Erne (two goals in his 28th game) and Christoffer Ehn (one goal in 24 games).

Blashill said earlier this season he was going to scratch a veteran in the season opener, but that changed when Andreas Athanasiou was sidelined by injury. Blashill brought that up again Thursday in talking about Abdelkader.

“What I would say is, him and I had this conversation prior to the Anaheim game, Game 3 of the season, and I thought that game, when we walked off the bench, he was one of our better forwards,” Blashill said. “So in 12 minutes or whatever, he had created lots of opportunities. He did it by being really good down low.

“Unfortunately, I thought he went through a stretch where he was playing good hockey and then he’s been hurt twice in a row now. And it’s hard – when you get hurt, you fall out of rhythm. When you get a little bit older, it gets harder and he’s just kind of fighting his way back in. This is not a knock on him as a competitor or person, he’s just fighting his way back in to where he, with his play in those 10-12 minutes, can say, you’re not going to take me out. And it’s hard to do that, for sure.”

The Wings are in a bind with Abdelkader, because he is signed through 2022-23 with a salary cap hit of $4.25 million. Buying him out next summer would count against the cap for six years (at, respectively according to CapFriendly: $1.805 million, two years at $2.305 million, and the last three years each at $1.055 million). A more likely outcome down the road is putting him on waivers, in which case putting Abdelkader in the minors would count roughly $3.15 million against the salary cap.

Goalie update

Goaltender Eric Comrie was claimed off waivers by Winnipeg. The Wings acquired Comrie on Nov. 30, three days after Jimmy Howard suffered a groin injury. Howard is on a conditioning stint with the Grand Rapids Griffins that is slated to end after he plays for them Friday. Calvin Pickard was called up Thursday, and will serve as Jonathan Bernier’s backup for Saturday’s game at Toronto. The plan is then for Howard to start Sunday against Arizona.

Comrie was 0-2 with a 4.28 goals-against average and .864 save percentage.

“We made the decision with our eyes wide open,” Blashill said of the decision to waive Comrie. “We were able to see him play a couple games, we were able to see him in practice. We said we were OK with risk" (of losing him).

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.