Despite all sorts of ups-and-downs and failures to win shootouts, the Detroit Red Wings remain just six points behind the Boston Bruins for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

Last month, the team had gone through a miserable seven-game losing streak that concluded in an injury to star center Pavel Datsyuk due to concussion-like symptoms.

Remarkably, however, Detroit won its first four games without Datsyuk and worked its way back up near the top. He returned Tuesday night in Florida, scoring a goal in the team's 3-2 shootout loss to the Panthers.

However, the other Euro Twin, captain Henrik Zetterberg, has now been placed on long-term injured reserve with a back injury. He will not be able to return until December 28 at the earliest.

Due to depth through all four lines and the tremendous play of backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, the Red Wings were able to win without Datsyuk in the lineup and should be able to do fairly well even without Zetterberg. Youngsters Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar have been playing great hockey lately, and Darren Helm should be back very soon from a minor injury.

Putting Zetterberg on long-term injured reserve also gives the Red Wings six million dollars worth of cap space to work with, and they now have the ability to call up more players from AHL affiliate Grand Rapids. One of the players that could deserve a call up is Tomas Jurco, who is averaging more than a point per game.

Young goaltender Petr Mrazek, who is 10-2-1 in Grand Rapids, has already been called up to back up Gustavsson as starter Jimmy Howard suffered a minor knee injury in practice on Wednesday morning.

While Zetterberg may be the most valuable player on the team, Detroit can still survive in a relatively weak Eastern Conference without him for a couple of weeks.

As long as Helm returns soon and Gustavsson, Nyquist and Tatar keep up their surprising seasons, the Red Wings should be able to hold their ground in the standings even with Zetterberg out of the lineup.