Detroit Red Wings: Howard and Holmstrom Out, Is It Time To Panic?

If you are a Detroit Red Wings fan, you are counting down the days until Pavel Datsyuk and Dan Cleary come back.

But now, you are marking on your calendar when Brad Stuart, Chris Osgood and Mike Modano come back.

And after yesterday, if you thought things weren't going to get worse, they did.

After being down 2-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Jimmy Howard went down to an injury and there is still no time table for his return.

Even worse, with Osgood out for at least another six weeks, the Red Wings are now relying on Grand Rapids Griffins for goalies.

Joey MacDonald ,(who has seen his fair share of NHL games), has become the starter by default, (even though he has looked sharp in his last couple outings in relief for Howard), and is going to be backed up by inexperience.

Goalie Thomas McCollum has been called up by the Wings to fill in the back up role for MacDonald.

Up to this point, between Grand Rapids Griffins and Detroit's ECHL farm team, Toledo Walleye, McCollum has seen action 22 games, registering an 8-10 record with a 2.83 goals against average and a .899 save percentage.

Late in the third period, Thomas Holmstrom went down to a broken hand.

In his place, Tomas Tatar has been recalled from Grand Rapids. He saw some time earlier on in the month in five games, scoring one goal.

With the list of injuries piling up, is it time to panic, Hockeytown?

the good news is that Datsyuk and Cleary should be back by the beginning of February.

Other good news is that Detroit has only five more games to play this month, with no back-to-backs, and no long road trips.

But still, this all seems too familiar.

Thankfully, the Wings are already at 60 points.

Here is hoping MacDonald and Tatar can fill the voids admirably for the time being.

Current list of Red Wings injuries:

Tomas Holmstrom (broken hand) out until mid-February
Jimmy Howard (bruised knee) day-to-day
Brad Stuart (broken jaw) out until mid-March
Chris Osgood (sports hernia) out until mid-March
Dan Cleary (fractured left ankle) out until end of January-beginning of February
Pavel Datsyuk (broke right hand) out until end of January-beginning of February
Mike Modano (right wrist laceration) out until mid-March 

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