Monday Recap: Mrazek, Tatar, Smith and a New Arena

I don’t like to do “quick hits” style posts but I wasn’t able to comment on some of today’s news so I’m going to bundle it all up into one post here.

Roster Moves
As mentioned yesterday, the Red Wings called up goalie Petr Mrazek and forward Tomas Tatar while sending down goalie Tom McCollum. In their first practice with the big club today, Tatar skated on the second line with Pavel Datsuk and Valtteri Filppula while Mrazek split time with Joey MacDonald.

Tatar may not actually play in that spot but it gets Todd Bertuzzi back down to the third line so I like the move. Keep in mind, though, that Gustav Nyquist started on the second line in his lone appearance of the season and was back down to the third before the game was out.

Mrazek won’t start tomorrow against the Flames and I don’t see him getting the nod against the Blues on Thursday. With back-to-back games this weekend, I see him making his debut on Saturday against Edmonton or Sunday against Los Angeles.

Injury Update
Because it had been too long since the Wings had an injury to announce, it was revealed today that the original 10-14 day estimate for Brendan Smith’s shoulder injury may have been optimistic. He’s now expected to miss three to four weeks with a shoulder sprain. The Wings have not made a move to replace Smith in the lineup as Ian White is expected to return from his own injury in time for Tuesday’s game.

Additionally, Darren Helm’s back pain hasn’t gone away, so he’ll be undergoing a bone scan to look for spinal damage.

Arena News
Late Sunday, Bill Shea of Crain’s Detroit Business broke the story that construction on the replacement to Joe Louis Arena could begin this fall. Today he adds that we should expect a corporate name to the new arena.

While it’s disappointing, that move is inevitable. There’s too much money on the table not to sell the naming rights. For that same reason, you won’t see the new arena called the Little Caesar’s Coliseum or anything like that, as it does no good for Mike Ilitch to buy the naming rights from himself.