Sports

Abdelkader suffered a cut on his foot in Friday's game against the Oilers that required eight-10 stitches to close and wouldn't have been able to suit up for Saturday's contest if not for some hard work by Red Wings masseur Sergei Tchekmarev, who cut a hole in his skate to insert a protective piece of plastic. "I wouldn't have been playing if we wouldn't have fixed it, because if you put any kind of pressure on it, it hurts,'' Abdelkader said. The goals were just the second and third of the campaign for the Detroit forward, but a long-term role on a line with Pavel Datsyuk could change his fortunes.