Notes: Green ready to return after missing seven games

WINNIPEG -- It's been a whirlwind of a week for Mike Green.
On Monday, he kept his phone with him as he enjoyed lunch with his wife and spent the day off with her and their young son.

Shortly before the 3 p.m. deadline, Green found out that he was not going to be traded, in part due to the neck injury that has kept him out of the lineup for the last seven games.
"Obviously it was bad timing. At the end of the day, it is what it is," Green said. "I'm here and I'm focused and I'm happy, so I move forward."
Although Wings coach Jeff Blashill understands what general manager Ken Holland has to do for the future of the team, he wasn't sorry that Green remained a Wing.
"From the coach's perspective, you hope to keep everybody and you want to make as good a push as you can to the playoffs" Blashill said. "Especially on the back end. I think you saw when we lost Johnny Ericsson last year, traded Brendan Smith, it got harder on the back end. I think keeping a guy on the back end like that is a real plus for us."
Green practiced fully with the team Thursday afternoon in Winnipeg at Bell MTS Place and said he is finally ready to play.
"Anytime you get a chance to get back in is a good feeling," Green said. "I'm feeling good, so I can't wait."
Green said he took an awkward hit Feb. 15 in Tampa that aggravated an old injury.
"Obviously, there's a process you gotta go through," Green said. "That's what we did. The time frame is where we're at now and it feels good. I think everybody feels confident in making the decision to come back."
Green leads all Wings defensemen in scoring and is tied with Gustav Nyquist and Andreas Athanasiou with 29 points, behind Dylan Larkin's 47, Henrik Zetterberg's 42 and Anthony Mantha's 36.
"He brings offense in a variety of ways," Blashill said. "One, he's on the power play, he's a weapon up top. One is just him jumping up in the play, he really pushes up the ice, but also his ability to break out and make outlet passes. He's one of our best passers for sure.
"Mike, in my mind has really become a real top-four defenseman in the NHL on any team and when I say become, I just think he's really built his defensive game up as well, so I think he's a big piece for us."
Green has said many times how much he's enjoyed being in Detroit and now he knows he'll be here through the end of the season and perhaps longer if the team re-signs him.
"I think the No. 1 thing for him is he loves being a Red Wing," Blashill said. "He loves being here, loves being part of the group. He thinks the culture in our locker room is special, as I do, so he loves being here. I think the hardest thing to deal with at times is the fear of the unknown. So, the fact he knows what's going on here for the next 19 games or so and hopefully into the playoffs."
LOOKING FOR MORE FROM POWER PLAY: Having Green back could help the power play, which is 22nd in the league at 18.5 percent.
"I think he just has that element of the big shot," Blashill said. "He can shoot it in the net. The more weapons you have on the power play the better chance you're going to score on a more consistent basis."
The power play only had two opportunities Wednesday night in St. Louis and failed to convert on either.
Obviously that could have made the difference in a 2-1 game.
"Our first, we had entries where we actually structurally we were fine, but we didn't execute," Blashill said. "We got in, we were OK and then we turned it over. The second power play, we actually did have some chances, some play around the net, and then (Gustav) Nyquist had the real chance where he hit the goalie in the head. If that goes in we're not talking about it. And then we pulled the goalie late and I actually thought we had an opportunity to have the looks, but we didn't execute. So we gotta execute better."
During Thursday's practice, Frans Nielsen took Henrik Zetterberg's spot on the unit with Martin Frk, Nyquist, Justin Abdelkader and Niklas Kronwall as Zetterberg took a maintenance day.
Blashill said Zetterberg is expected to play Friday against the Jets.
Frk has been accustomed to setting up in the left circle to deliver his stinging one-timer but has been shifted out of that spot for now.
"I've moved Frky a little bit at different times," Blashill said. "It's nice to have a righty in that bumper spot in the middle of the ice. The one disadvantage we have is having tons of lefties. When you bring it down to the goal line, you can't really pop it for that one timer like (Boston's Patrice) Bergeron does for those one-timer goals. These guys (Winnipeg) have that. They have a lot of righties but they have the net front guy who's a lefty and he can pop it up to the middle as well. Sometimes it takes a little bit to get adjusted to that spot and we'll see if Frky can do it, or if he's better off hitting the one-timer."
The other unit was comprised of Andreas Athanasiou, Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi and Green.
COREAU AHL GOALIE OF MONTH: Although Jared Coreau has been with the Wings since the team traded Petr Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers, he still did enough with the Grand Rapids Griffins to be named CCM/AHL Goaltender of the Month for February.
Coreau went 4-0-2 with a 1.46 goals-against average, .951 save percentage and two shutouts in six appearances in February.
The two shutouts came in back-to-back contests on the road against the Western Conference-leading Manitoba Moose on Feb. 15 and 17.
Coreau earned AHL Player of the Week honors after that performance.
Coreau, 26, has not allowed a goal in his last 126:47 in the AHL.
This is the second time Coreau has won AHL Goaltender of the Month honors, also taking the prize in Dec. 2015.