The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of coach Jeff Blashill’s remarks regarding Tyler Bertuzzi’s status as not-quite-ready-to-play as he continues to recover from back surgery:
“You’d love to do that; you’d love to have him play a few games,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “But he’s in a spot where we’re progressing him and we’ll see. I’m not going to put a timeline on it, and I’m not going to say that it’s something that is a must. He has to be ready for Game 1 against Tampa and there are a lot of different ways you can be ready. Some of it is playing in the exhibition season, but we’ll see how it progresses.”
Bertuzzi has been physically cleared to practice and play, and has been a regular in practices since the start of training camp. He also played in the intrasquad Red & White scrimmage. But through five exhibition games, Bertuzzi has yet to play as the Wings remain cautious with the forward.
“Returning to play coming off a major back surgery, there’s a lot that goes into that,” Blashill said. “Part of it is just getting your body ready. He hasn’t skated this hard in a lot of months, way more than other people. Part of it is just getting his body ready and getting into a spot to be ready to feel comfortable to go out and be successful.”
Blashill said Bertuzzi would take part in Monday’s practice. But whether Bertuzzi would be able to jump into an exhibition game later in the week remained unclear.
“Our goal is for him to be ready for Game 1 against Tampa,” Blashill said. “We’d love to get him in exhibition games, they can help you feel your way into it. We’d love to get him some games, but right now we’re trying to keep progressing at the right speed.”