We reported last month that Pavel Datsyuk underwent ankle surgery. The original timeline was reported to be between four to six weeks. Well, new Red Wings bench boss Jeff Blashill will have to begin the season without their top forward as it’s been revealed that Datsyuk could miss the first month or so of the season due to setbacks in his rehabilitation.
According to a story from SVT.se of Sweden, they reported:
“Doctors say four-five months. So we’ll see,” Datsyuk said. “I hope I just miss a little early in the season. The rehabilitation time after surgery in June was estimated first 4-6 weeks, but has thus proved to be much longer than that.
“But I will still be in place in Detroit when the season starts in order to prepare myself with the team. Self is more difficult.”
This doesn’t bode well for Red Wings fans, who won’t see Datsyuk on opening night for the second straight year and are desperate for another Stanley Cup run before Datsyuk and his Euro Twin Henrik Zetterberg inch closer to retirement. Datsyuk turned 37 today, which means he doesn’t have much left in the tank. As written in the post last month about his surgery, the amount of playoff games he played has added almost two seasons to his career.
If he knew he needed surgery, why did he wait several weeks after the season to have the procedure done? If he had begun sooner then maybe he could have returned for the start of the regular season.
The Red Wings open training camp in mid-September, play their first preseason game Sept. 22 in Chicago and will start the regular season Oct. 9 against former head coach Mike Babcock and the Toronto Maple Leafs at Joe Louis Arena.
