Zetterberg's wrist hurts
Wing is coming to Detroit for checkup

As if Red Wings fans needed any more bad news this summer, forward Henrik Zetterberg has a sore wrist and is flying from Sweden to Detroit for a medical evaluation.

A Swedish newspaper reported that the injury might cause Zetterberg to miss the start of the season, but Wings general manager Ken Holland termed the examination a "precautionary move" because of the player's past wrist troubles.

"What do we find when we get him here?" Holland said Thursday. "Don't know till we get him here."

Holland said that Zetterberg periodically has complained of a sore wrist, although it didn't keep him from playing last season.

"He called two days ago and just said that he's trying to shoot the puck and was having a hard time," Holland said. "We're going to bring him over and have our doctors look at him."

Expressen, the Swedish newspaper, quoted Zetterberg's agent, Gunnar Svensson, as saying that the wrist has been a problem for a year and a half and that it flared up this week while Zetterberg was skating with his former Swedish club, Timra.

Zetterberg, 25, is coming off a season during which he established himself as one of the top two-way players in the NHL. He scored 39 goals among 85 points in 77 games and then shined brighter than any Wing in the playoffs, scoring six goals in six games against Edmonton.

Zetterberg, who won an Olympic gold medal in February, has spent the off-season in his native Sweden. Later this month, he is scheduled to be in England, as a guest coach at a kids camp.

This off-season, the Wings already have dealt with the retirement of captain Steve Yzerman and the loss of Brendan Shanahan, who turned down Detroit's contract offer and signed with the New York Rangers.

Training camp starts in mid-September in Traverse City.

NOTEBOOK: The Wings will appear in nationally televised games four times on NBC and seven times on OLN during the season. Additionally, the Wings will appear five times on CBC and 11 times on TSN in Canada. ...

The Wings announced new start times for three games at Joe Louis Arena because of television. Games against Vancouver on Oct. 5 and Buffalo on Oct. 13 will start at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30, and a game against Edmonton on Nov. 8 was moved to 8 p.m. from 7:30 p.m.