Kronwall On Return Of Abdelkader For Game 3: 'Abby's A Force For Us'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Forward Justin Abdelkader will be back in action Tuesday after missing the first two games of the first-round playoff series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Abdelkader, who was out with a hand injury, has scored 23 goals for Detroit this season, the fourth-most on the team behind Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist and Pavel Datsyuk. With the series tied, 1-1, Abdelkader's teammates are happy to see him return for Game 3.
"Abby's a force for us," defenseman Niklas Kronwall said Monday. "I don't think people really know how much he means to this team. It's almost like when we were without [Darren] Helm there for a long time. You don't really know much they mean until you miss them, or until you lose them. He's been a force for us.
"Not only is he scoring goals, but all the other things that he's doing well," Kronwall added. "On the forecheck, big body, making it hard for the other d-men, creating so much room for Hank [Henrik Zetterberg] and Pav or whoever he's playing with."
Abdelkader's goal total this season is more than double his previous career high. In his other five full seasons, he never scored more than 10. He attributed the jump to confidence. Head coach Mike Babcock agreed with that assessment.
"When he gets the puck and he's got a chance, he shoots it in the net; he doesn't dump it on the goalie in forecheck," Babcock said. "There's a whole bunch of kids that come in this league, and we do it year after year, we trade kids because we say they have no hockey sense. Well that's not true; they always had hockey sense, but the league's going too fast and their brain hasn't caught up, they haven't relaxed enough. Just the stars do. The rest of the guys, it takes forever.
"It's taken Abby a long time; now he's back to being who he was," Babcock continued. "He was a dominant player in the American League, was a dominant player in college, he's always been a hard guy, but it's taken him a while to get to that level, just like it took Darren Helm a long time to get to that level. So a lot of the kids you get discouraged with, it's just because you've rushed them. Just let them grow up. But that's easy to say when you've got good players around them. When you don't have a good team, you're rushed for kids."
A component Abdelkader brings the Red Wings is inside scoring, which Babcock has repeatedly said is the only type of scoring that happens in the playoffs. Kronwall concurred.
"That's huge," Kronwall said. "That's where all the goals are scored ... He brings us another big body that can bang around a little bit and be strong in front of their net."
With grit rather than finesses the focus, Abdelkader's game is well suited for the playoffs, he said.
"I know what my job is out there, and I think you see the goals that are going in in the playoffs, a lot of third-, fourth-line guys are scoring those goals, and it's the guys that get to the hard areas, get around the nets," Abdelkader said. "Looking forward to going out there and helping my team."
Kronwall said the addition of Abdelkader could make an impact immediately.
"That's what Abby can bring," Kronwall said. "Of course we're expecting him to get right back in it."
The puck drops on Game 3 at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena.
