DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Eaves was breathing much easier on Friday, and he’ll be chewing a lot better, too.

Eaves had his dislocated jaw reset two days after being cross-checked by Toronto's Joffrey Lupul Wednesday during the Winter Classic.

Eaves practiced Friday wearing a shield to protect his jaw. He is experiencing no concussion-like symptoms and is ready to play Saturday at Dallas (8 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

“Everything’s good to go now,” Eaves said. “It was pretty uncomfortable with my jaw being the way it was; my teeth weren’t lined up. I was pretty sore right away. But it’s back in the right spot and feels a lot better.”

Lupul was fined $10,000 by the NHL for the hit -- the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement -- and avoided a suspension.



Eaves was out for more than 13 months with a concussion after suffered a fractured jaw when hit by a shot on Nov. 26, 2011. Lupul’s check caught him on the same side, but he wasn’t worried about a concussion.

“My head was fine the whole time; I was clear and everything,” Eaves said. “It was just the jaw; I’ve been down that road before and was hoping I didn’t have to go down it again.”

The incident happened at 11:04 of the first period. Eaves did not return to the game.

“I wanted to play more in the game because it was a huge game,” Eaves said. “He made the decision to do what he did. Nothing I could do about it. I didn’t see it coming. I was just trying to get the puck out. It is what it is, it’s out of my hands. Now we just got to focus on our two points tomorrow.”

Prior to learning of the league's decision, Eaves said, "I don’t really care; that’s for the league to decide. It has no impact on our upcoming games; that’s all I’m worried about.”

Datsyuk has maintenance day but expected to play

Pavel Datsyuk didn’t skate Friday due to what coach Mike Babcock said was a maintenance day. Babcock said Datsyuk should be ready to play Saturday.

Defenseman Danny DeKeyser didn’t skate Friday; he said he is day-to-day with a groin injury.

“I started feeling it during the game a little bit (Wednesday) and then just kind of played through it,” DeKeyser said.

Center Darren Helm (groin), forward Johan Franzen (concussion) and goaltender Jonas Gustavsson (groin) did not practice Friday but will accompany the team on the four-game trip, which features a three-day stop in Phoenix between games in Dallas and San Jose.

Here are the lines and defense pairings they skated with on Friday:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Daniel Alfredsson

Justin Abdelkader-Mikael Samuelsson (holding a place for Pavel Datsyuk)-Todd Bertuzzi

Drew Miller-Joakim Andersson-Tomas Tatar

Daniel Cleary-Luke Glendening-Patrick Eaves

Niklas Kronwall-Brendan Smith

Brian Lashoff-Jakub Kindl

Kyle Quincey-Alexey Marchenko

Jimmy Howard

Petr Mrazek