Detroit — Tyler Bertuzzi returned to practice Monday, off the COVID protocol list and looking forward to playing hockey again.
But, one thing hasn’t changed: Despite being one of the few reported players who is unvaccinated, and now having had the virus, Bertuzzi isn’t changing his stance.
No vaccination for him.
“Natural immunity, now,” said Bertuzzi, who is expected to play Tuesday when the Red Wings host the New York Islanders.
Bertuzzi missed five games (the Wings were 2-3) and 10 days after landing on the protocol list. His unvaccinated status means Bertuzzi can’t travel to Canada, and he missed all three games the Wings have played there (all losses).
The Wings are scheduled to play six more games in Canada the second half of the season, and Bertuzzi will not be part of the lineup unless he changes his position on getting vaccinated.
“Obviously it sucks missing games,” Bertuzzi said, “but it is what it is.”
Bertuzzi felt “stuffy, with a little headache, that was it” during his bout with the virus.
“I feel fine now, a little bit stuffy, but I feel good. I got three or four workouts in, and a few days I got kind of stuffy and didn’t want to do any cardio, so I pretty much walked every day with my dogs to the park and stayed active as I could,” said Bertuzzi, who also skated on his own Saturday and Sunday. “Hopefully that gets me into the best shape I can to at least try and get back into shape.”
Returning to play in an NHL game Tuesday will be a challenge, he admitted.
“Four skates (total), so probably it will be a little tough getting back into it, but you have to start somewhere,” Bertuzzi said.
Bertuzzi was back on a line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond for Monday’s practice. Just like any player who has returned from this virus, the Wings have realistic expectations for the short term.
“From what I’ve observed over the last couple of years of guys coming back from this, it varies a little bit guy to guy and how hard they’ve been hit,” Blashill said. “Sometimes they’re back in the lineup and you expect them to be right back where they were when they left, and that’s unrealistic a lot of times.
“We have to understand that it might take Bert some time to get himself back to playing at full speed, 100% that he’s capable of — and it might not. You just don’t know that answer yet, but we have to understand that it might be the case.”
Bertuzzi has nine goals and nine assists for 18 points, in 20 games this season. But Bertuzzi hasn’t scored a goal in his last 10 games, with only three assists during that span.
What needs to be done to accelerate those statistics?
“Just keep it simple, I guess, and try to get points,” Bertuzzi said. “Maybe go to the net a little bit more.”
Still, Blashill is satisfied with what he’s seeing from Bertuzzi, and calls the latest offensive lull a “normal ebb and flow of the season.
“He wasn’t going to keep up the pace early; those are unrealistic numbers for the course of a season. I just think it’s an ebb and flow. I don’t have an issue with Bert’s game. Bert, when he left, was playing good hockey and hopefully he can come back to speed as quick as possible.”
Bertuzzi watched his teammates lose all three games last week, to Nashville, St. Louis and Colorado, by a combined score of 18-7.
The Wings had plenty of defensive issues, an area that will need to cleaned up whether playing at Little Caesars Arena, or anywhere else.
“I watched them all (games); there’s a few that were real good and some that were not so good,” Bertuzzi said. “(We’ll) watch video and try to get better at practice and we’ll come back Tuesday and have to put it behind us.
“(Play) simple, hard at their net, and the turnovers in the defensive zone is the big thing. If we are good defensively, we have a real good chance to win the hockey game. If we can clean up the defensive zone, it leads to more offense and wins.
“You just have to put it behind you. Every team in the league is going to go through stretches good or bad and you have to learn to put it behind you and take the positives out of everything and move on and get better.”
‘Promotion’ for Namestnikov
Blashill switched forwards Vladislav Namestnikov and Filip Zadina, putting Namestnikov with Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri, while Zadina skated with Michael Rasmussen and Adam Erne.
For Namestnikov, it’s essentially a promotion to more of an offensive line, given Namestnikov’s performance lately.
“A well earned promotion,” said Blashill, noting Namestnkov also was placed on the power play last week. “I would say he’s played as good as any forward in our group the last little bit. He’s skating well, he’s producing enough offense and he’s played real good hockey. So to me, it’s a well earned promotion.”
Zadina could get more time playing with the puck, while playing with two big, grinding forwards.
“I don’t know that either one of those lines is going to get a whole bunch different ice time,” Blashill said. “I don’t necessarily see it as a demotion for Z. Z has worked hard, and potentially playing with Ras and Erne, it gets him even more puck touches because they’re hard on the puck, hard forecheckers and if he gets more puck touches, does he then produce more offense?
“Z is working hard and as he works hard, he’ll work through and grow and that’s all we ask of him.”
Ice chips
Defenseman Marc Staal (COVID protocol) remains unavailable, but defenseman Gustav Lindstrom (lower body) returned to Monday’s practice and could be available to play against the Islanders.
… With the Calgary Flames the latest team to postpone games due to the virus outbreak, and cases increasingly throughout the NHL, the Wings will monitor around their team but not necessarily go into “enhanced measures” as they did for the last road trip.
“I know some teams went to that early in the season and had one of the biggest COVID outbreaks, so it’s a virus that can find you in a lot of different ways,” Blashill said. “Certainly you want to be vigilant but we’ll make that decision as we go trip through trip.”
Islanders at Red Wings
►Faceoff: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
►TV/radio: BSD+/97.1 FM
►Outlook: The Wings defeated the Islanders, 4-3 in overtime, just 10 days ago (Dec. 4) at LCA. … The Islanders (7-11-5) are slowly returning to speed after getting hammered by a COVID outbreak that forced postponements. … C Mat Barzal (17 points), C Brock Nelson (nine goals) and G Ilya Sorokin (.925 save percentage) have stood out.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan