Now that Johan Franzen has been medically cleared to practice with the Detroit Red Wings, there are a lot of people that think that he will be in the lineup for as early as Saturday night for Game 1.
I think that may be a little overly ambitious.
There is no official word yet, and anything is possible in the Stanley Cup playoffs so if he suits up for Game 1, who would be that surprised?
That being said, what is coming out of the Red Wings dressing room at this point is the suggestion that his return is more likely to happen in Game 2 or Game 3. That would give Franzen a little more time to get his wits about him.
That, of course is providing that there are no setbacks. And if there aren't, that is huge news for the Detroit Red Wings because the number one problem that they had which allowed the Stars back into their Conference Final series, is that they did not get a secondary scoring push beyond Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.
They need Franzen in the lineup to beat Crosby and Malkin.