Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom left practice early Tuesday with a sore knee. When asked if he’ll be ready to play in Friday’s opener, the 38-year-old veteran said, “That's the goal. Hopefully, I'll practice tomorrow.”

Coach Mike Babcock ordered the Swedish forward off of the ice before practice even began.

"It was pretty obvious that he was in pain," Babcock said. Still, the Wings' coach is confident that he'll have Holmstrom back in time for the opener against the Ottawa Senators at Joe Louis Arena.

As for other injuries, it looks as if defenseman Mike Commodore (MCL) will likely be the only guy not ready to return to action this weekend. Not only is he expected to miss Friday's opener, he'll also likely sit out Saturday's game at Colorado. The absense of Commodore means that Jakub Kindl will start the season as the sixth defenseman and will be paired with Jonathan Ericsson.

Center Pavel Datsyuk (sore back), forwards Henrik Zetterberg (upper body), Danny Cleary (upper body) and Patrick Eaves (foot) should all be ready to go against the Senators. Eaves and Commodore did not practice Tuesday.

Yet Babcock was satisfied to see everyone else back on the ice Tuesday morning.

“It’s amazing when you get rid of exhibition now who gets healthy fast,” Babcock said. “It’s like the Fountain of Youth.”

Here are the line combinations and defensive pairings as they skated today at JLA:

OFFENSIVE LINES
Valtteri Filppula - Henrik Zetterberg - Johan Franzen
Danny Cleary - Pavel Datsyuk - Jiri Hudler
Justin Abdelkader - Darren Helm - Todd Bertuzzi
Fabian Brunnstrom - Cory Emmerton - Drew Miller
DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS
Nicklas Lidstrom - Ian White
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson - Jakub Kindl
GOALIES
Jimmy Howard - Ty Conklin