Quote of the day … Mike Babcock

DETROIT — The Wings have yet to get a goal from one of their bottom six forwards.

“Good way to fix it is put (Darren) Helm in the mix and he’ll fix that in a hurry,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “In the meantime, just keep grinding and don’t give anything up. If you’re not getting anything don’t give anything up.”

Zetterberg ready to play; White could return Tuesday

DETROIT — Quick update from the Wings’ morning skate prior to tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues.

Henrik Zetterberg will play tonight after missing practice Thursday with a fever and sore throat.

“I had a sore throat and fever for two days,” Zetterberg said. “I feel better today. I’ll play.”

Wings coach Mike Babcock said he’ll go with the same lineup as he did Tuesday, which means Brian Lashoff will be a healthy scratch.

Ian White (leg laceration) took part in the optional practice and said he’ll be ready to play Tuesday against the Calgary Flames.

“I can’t bend it past 120 degrees, so it’s still pretty stiff,” White said. “Fortunately, skating you probably don’t bend your leg even 90 degrees, so skating’s pretty easy, no pain doing anything on the ice, just need to get that range of motion back.

“I was actually hoping to play today because I was skating for a few days now, felt fine skating but then the doctor explained if you fall and that leg jack knifes or whatever then it’ll blow everything up in there,” White added. “I’m aiming for Tuesday, we’ll see. It gets a little bit better every day and hopefully I’ll be back then.”

Babcock will wait and see as well.

“He said he’s going to go on Tuesday, I said we’ll see after practice and decide if he’s going on Tuesday,” Babcock said.

White still has stitches in his leg.

“We’ve got to keep the stitches in there as long as possible because once you start going like that, you know it would rip open if they weren’t there,” White said.

Mikael Samuelsson (groin) is getting closer to returning to the ice.

“It’s in a matter of a couple of days I’ll start skating so that’s going to be good,” Samuelsson said. “We were more cautious than we’ve been in the past. I thought I was good to go in training camp, I pulled it a little bit and this time I didn’t really pull it but it was still sore. I’m being cautious about it so it doesn’t happen again.”

Babcock didn’t seem like backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson (groin) is close to returning.

“The goaltenders there doesn’t seem to be any light here at the end of the tunnel,” Babcock said. “As a goalie if you haven’t played and you have to win every night how can you put that guy in? Howie can’t play every night, like eventually you have to have someone play.”

Quote of the day … Mike Babcock

DETROIT — Wings coach Mike Babcock was asked if his team understood how penalties were being called, more specific Niklas Kronwall, who was sent off three times in Tuesday’s win over the Dallas Stars.

“He shouldn’t have been,” Babcock said. “Don’t take penalties. Keep your stick down. Don’t interfere. Recover with your feet, not your stick. Life will be good.”

Feeling the Blues

DETROIT — The Wings think they’re a better team than the one that met St. Louis to open the season.

The Blues beat Detroit, 6-0.

“It’s just one of those things where it was the first game of the year, they handed it to us,” Wings goalie Jimmy Howard said. “They came out ready to play and they got on top of us early, got on top of our D, got their forecheck going. We’re going to have to find a way of limiting them from getting on top of our D, that way we can spend a little bit more time in their end.”

The Blues scored four times on the power play and once shorthanded. Three of their goals were on breakaways.

“Well, I mean, we had a tough game in St. Louis,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We gave up four gift goals and you can’t do that in a hockey game and expect success. I didn’t think we were very competitive in that game.

“Now we have an opportunity to evaluate ourselves six games later and see where we at,” Babcock added. “We’re through segment one and we were able to get seven points. We need to have a better segment this segment to keep in the chase and it starts with the game tomorrow.”

St. Louis is second in the Central Division.

“We definitely know it’s important for us,” Justin Abdelkader said. “They’re a division rival and a team already ahead of us in the standings. We’re on our home ice, we got to come out and set the tone early and play a smarter game and hopefully specialty teams will be better.”