Wings’ Williams suffers fractured right fibula

Nov 7, 11:50 pm EST

TORONTO (AP)—Detroit Red Wings forward Jason Williams(notes) could miss two months after fracturing his right fibula in a 5-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Williams crashed hard into the boards during the second period.

The 29-year-old right winger was on the ice for several minutes before being helped to the dressing room.

Williams was off to a relatively slow start with two goals and seven points through 14 games, but was still fifth on the team in scoring. He will now likely miss at least two months.

“Losing Willy was a blow to us,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “He’s playing more minutes and in more situations than we anticipated. But that’s just the way it’s gone.”

The Red Wings were already without winger Johan Franzen(notes), the team’s No. 2 scorer last season with 34 goals, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the third game of the season and is out until February.

Detroit is also missing fourth-year center Valtteri Filppula(notes), who broke his wrist at the end of October and will be out until late December.

“There’s no sense worrying about the guys who aren’t available,” Babcock said. “We’ve got to find a way as a group to get a win.”

The Red Wings had five 20-goal scorers last season but have just two players, Henrik Zetterberg(notes) and Tomas Holmstrom(notes), on pace to reach the mark in 2009-10.

“We’re not going to be able to score as we did,” Babcock said. “We’re going to have to do a better job defensively, and we’re going to have to get good goaltending and good specialty teams.”

Updated Nov 7, 11:50 pm EST
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18 Comments

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  1. randall b
    18. Posted by randall b Mon Nov 9 4:19pm EST

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    detroit will be fine. i like being the under dog for a change. it has a youthful feel to it. have not felt that in a decade and a half. now i know how 29 other teams have felt over the years. bottom line is we will see you in june. and to all you haters, kiss my a$$!!!!
  2. Mike M
    17. Posted by Mike M Mon Nov 9 12:04pm EST

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    Sorry to see Williams helped off the ice like that,best wishes to him and his family. Good to see people who appreciate the skills Bertuzzi has brought to the Wings . Good luck to him and the Wings !!!
  3. Wingnut
    16. Posted by Wingnut Mon Nov 9 10:58am EST

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    @11 MACHINE

    Could not agree with you more. Bert made a bad decision, but it is over people need to let it go. Where is the outrage against Moore for his injuring Nasland? Anyways, Bertuzzi has clanked a LOT of iron this year and sooner or later those will start going in for him.

    If people aren't careful, they gonna break their own fibula jumping off the band wagon. It's early yet, the team needs to gel a bit more. Look at the line combos that have needed to be used due to inuries, not the same as camp. Go Wings!!
  4. janis j
    15. Posted by janis j Sun Nov 8 12:25pm EST

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    Sorry to see Williams hurt, wish him well. As far as Bertuzzi goes , no one can say he isn't giving 100%. He seems prepared for every game & plays where ever is needed . Seems every game he's given penalty that is iffy. He's skating "smart " . If he was 24 I'd expect more, but he gets to the net , gets his shots on goal which will start going in, if only because he seems to driven to do well. Only once in last nights game did I think he should have done something other than make the pass that he did. I wasn't glued to the set so maybe I missed something. Whatever. He's doing better than some others. Plus he is a Red Wing so I will support him as much as any other.
  5. <i>fresnoyankee</i>
    14. Posted by fresnoyankee Sun Nov 8 12:17pm EST

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    Sorry to hear this. Willy was a key component in the Jackets post-season run last year. He's a great guy too. Get well Willy!
  6. Schwenn88
    13. Posted by Schwenn88 Sun Nov 8 12:12pm EST

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    VegasBiker, you're an idiot. They're not going anywhere.
  7. VegasBiker
    12. Posted by VegasBiker Sun Nov 8 11:50am EST

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    Pipe down people. These are the Redwings. They will regroup, make a trade or two, regain theur winning ways and once again go deep into the playoffs.
  8. MACHINE
    11. Posted by MACHINE Sun Nov 8 11:44am EST

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    there aint no bertuzzi curse,that sheet with moore was a bad thing,but it is over all throughout hockeys past have been some bad hits and retaleations,bertuzzis not the first to make a bad judgement,yes it was visicous hit and it was wrong. .he was punnished for it. ok long time ago,time to move on.he plays the puck good,and as a wings fan hes on my team ,so i will support him as all redwings on the roster,just be glad we havent lost any other guys yet to injury,its gonna be a long hard season.
  9. Navy Veteran
    10. Posted by Navy Veteran Sun Nov 8 11:14am EST

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    I have also been impressed with Bertuzzi's play, he has been going to the net and racing around the ice and has to my surprise, skating really well. He looks a lot better then some of the top guys do. Rafalski looked like crap again, he is definately over paid. We will struggle to make it past the first round this year, but we will not make it to the stanley cup. The team lost to many of the top scorers and there is no one that they have or can bring in that can make up for that. Our goals for are way down and the reason is because of the guys we lost. Our goal tending will remain to be a huge issue as well. With a lot of cap room next year, let's hope that holland and the rest of the organization can manage to get a few great guys here. As always, they really need to get ris of lebda, and a few others. They should have never got rid quincey..he is playing better then the guys we held on to. Another slap in the face to holland and his guys. Oh well, maybe we will get a better team together next year..this year will not be the year. I will always root for the wings, but it makes it hard after the way they play, like last night, they looked pathetic. Anf if that wasn't hard to watch, Toronto played the night before and they looked way better then the wings did. You would have thought that they wings just played the night before by the wat they played.
  10. dropthegloves
    9. Posted by dropthegloves Sun Nov 8 11:09am EST

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    Bad news. Wings are riddled with injuries. No J Franzen, V Filppula and now J Williams will be out at least 2 months. Who is next? Avs, Coyotes, and Kings are makings some noises. They might not win a Stanley Cup this year, but they will surprise a lot of people. Who would have thought Craig Anderson was a good goalie? What about Ilya Bryzalov? He already had 3 shutout. Bankcrupcy judge has approved the sale of Coyotes to the NHL, and they are looking for buyers. When the Kings played against Coyotes on Monday 11/2/09, the attendant was 6,555 or maybe less. Kings won 5-3. Ducks went there on Sat 10/31/09 the attendant was 5,850. 5,800 was the smallest crowd. Any way, Ducks lost in a shootout 3-2 if I am not mistaken. Speaking of Ducks, they beat Phoenix Coyotes 4-3 last night at Honda Center in Anaheim. Ducks are 6-7-2, 14 points dead last, Kings are 10-5-2, 22 points 2nd, Coyotes are 10-7-0, 20 points. Kings will go on the road for 5 games starting at Windy City Mon 11/9/09. Kings will play on Nov 11, Veterans' Day. Happy Veterans Day everybody. Go Kings!
  11. marcis
    8. Posted by marcis Sun Nov 8 9:58am EST

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    Bertuzzi is a curse. When I heard that Detroit aquired him I just about had a stroke. The man should not be aloud to play in the NHL after what he did to Moore. Williams is no great lose.
    Between Bertuzzi and Williams we have 3M in salary. Are you kidding me. These are not players worth anywhere near that kind of money. Every year they hop from team to team and the Red Wings pick them up. Next: Goaltending. We need consistant goal tending, and Osgood is that that person.
  12. <i>mddg3581</i>
    7. Posted by mddg3581 Sun Nov 8 9:14am EST

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    it does hurt having this injury prone spree this season. Yes we do have the depth to still make the playoffs. The interesting thing right now is that when we do get everybody healthy,, it's going to take more time for everybody to gel back together as a strong unit. Lets pray we don't lose a injury prone D man such as Kronwall again. And of course, Z and Datsyuk jave just as much an opportunity to get themselves injured as anybody does.
  13. Norman L
    6. Posted by Norman L Sun Nov 8 8:45am EST

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    Agree with 5. Bert isn't scoring but he is almost never less than 0 in plus minus. Defensively he is not a liability. Some of the other guys have been. That said hey, the Wings are 7 3 and 3 since losing the first 2 games and have made up a lot of ground. I can live with that. They're fixing it. Give it time.
  14. <i>guidoggie</i>
    5. Posted by guidoggie Sun Nov 8 4:19am EST

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    I gotta say something to the douche who said Bertuzzi just floats around. First of all, I don't like Todd Bertuzzi a bit. I think that he's a low life for the stunt he pulled on Moore years ago. That being said, I've actually been fairly impressed at the way he's played so far this year. Granted, my expectations were low. While he does get lazy at times, so does the entire Wings team, especially when playing sub par teams. They had a lot of pep in their games agaist Calgary and San Jose. Tonight against Toronto it was like it was just a scrimmage to them, and they paid for it. But its not just Todd. He's put a bunch of shots off the post, made some beautiful defensive plays, and has shown a lot more hustle than I would have expected. So anyways, before you go hatin on Todd for his play, watch more than one game. Yea he's a cheap shot artist but know what your talkin about before you spew stuff you don't really know.
  15. Luke B
    4. Posted by Luke B Sun Nov 8 1:33am EST

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    Williams is not a point a game player, but he is certainly not useless! Not good...
  16. Avs in 10
    3. Posted by Avs in 10 Sun Nov 8 12:48am EST

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    At #1, exactly, its the Bertuzzi curse....... he's going to pay for that crap until someone ends HIS career. Detroit was stupid for picking him up..... a step in the wrong direction.
  17. Brett W
    2. Posted by Brett W Sun Nov 8 12:37am EST

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    Williams is worthless anyways.
  18. Bob B
    1. Posted by Bob B Sun Nov 8 12:24am EST

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    If Detroit wants to regain their winning ways they need to get Bertuzzi off the ice. He floats around every shift, gets in everyone's way and plainly just sucks. Unless he can back to his pre-injurying Moore days he is just a team liability and the ice time could go to players who are more deserving...Leino, Helm, Abdelkader.
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