Wings fine with lineup despite injuries

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

Calgary, Alberta --Here's the fallout, so far, from the Red Wings losing their second top-six forward this season: Valtteri Filppula is out 6-8 weeks after breaking his right wrist Thursday in Edmonton.

General manager Ken Holland made it clear there were no trades or signings forthcoming.

"It's a big loss, but lots of teams have had big losses," he said in practice Friday. "You have to find depth. This is an opportunity for (Darren) Helm and Abby (Justin Abdelkader) and (Patrick) Eaves to play.

"We're a work in progress, but I've seen a lot of positive signs on this road trip. We just have to start playing a more complete game from the goal on out for 60 minutes. If we do, I like our team."

Mike Babcock redrew the lines, starting by benching slumping Ville Leino for tonight's game against the Flames.

"Ville's having a day to watch," Babcock said. "He's not playing hard enough here, so he's going to watch and the other guys are going to play."

Leino has one point in his last seven games.

"He's getting snuffed out, not involved," Babcock said. "If you are a scorer and you are not going to the net, you're going to be in for a long year."

Said Leino: "It's time to start doing something. I just want to get back to having fun, not thinking all the time and just playing my game."

Babcock also split up Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. Datsyuk will center Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi. Zetterberg will center Jason Williams and Danny Cleary.

Helm will center the third line with Kris Draper and Eaves. Abdelkader centers the fourth line between Brad May and Kirk Maltby.

"I thought we showed our character coming back the way we did in Edmonton and Vancouver," Cleary said. "Now is the time of the season where we need to really start playing. We can't keep spotting teams leads and giving away points."

Babcock echoed the point about starting games better, reminding his team that in the NHL, the team that scores first wins 80 percent of the time.

"I liked our determination and battle level, but catch-up hockey is losing hockey," he said. "When you are chasing the game, you make turnovers because you have to force things. Whereas, if you get started on time and you are diligent about what you do and you stick to the details, you can play a way more patient, comfortable game."

The Wings had 15 giveaways against the Oilers. They led directly to four of their five regulation goals.

"We hate turnovers here; that was very uncharacteristic of us," Clearly said. "But it's been our Achilles heel of late."

Ice chips

Andreas Lilja (concussion) continues to participate in drills, but he still isn't ready to give himself a return date.

... Chris Osgood will start in goal tonight, his first since being pulled after seven minutes against the Canucks.

"I feel good," he said. "I have to play better than I did in Vancouver, but it was only (seven) minutes. I would have hoped to stay in but I didn't get that opportunity. I have to let that go and move on."

chris.mccosky@detnews.com (313) 222-1489