NHL Food poisoning decked Red Wings

Cheesesteaks and cole slaw knocked Tomas Holmstrom and Igor Larionov out of the lineup.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Food poisoning caught up with the Stanley Cup champions on a recent flight back to Detroit from Dallas.
The meal that did the damage to the Red Wings was cheesesteaks and cole slaw.
Affected the worst were forwards Tomas Holmstrom and Igor Larionov, who were too sick to play in Sunday night's home game against St. Louis.
Mathieu Dandenault was moved up from defense to offense to fill in. He was matched on a makeshift line with Luc Robitaille and Jason Williams.
"I did eat some of it but I guess my immune system bailed me out this time, but there were a lot of guys that were sick," Dandenault said.
He took his position switch in stride just as well.
"The coaches didn't say anything until before the game but I looked at it as a fun opportunity to change things up and have a good time," he said. "It was fun."
Happy to move up
Williams was glad to just get into the lineup. The rookie had only played 14 games this season entering this weekend.
For the record, he didn't partake in the plane food.
"No, I stayed away from all that," he said. "I stuck with the tuna."
The Red Wings also were fortunate that Henrik Zetterberg wasn't hungry on the flight. That left him well enough to score the winning goal in overtime to beat the Blues.
"I just had fruit," he said. "It's the first time I don't eat on the plane, so I was lucky."
Theo's back
Theo Fleury didn't think about skipping the two games the Chicago Blackhawks played this week in New York, even though they came up right after he returned from a substance-abuse related suspension.
He missed the first 25 games played by the Blackhawks, the team he signed with this past offseason after three tough years with the Rangers.
Fleury wasn't worried about razzing on Long Island, where he has long been a villain to Islanders fans.
Nor was he concerned about the pressure of playing in front of the Rangers' faithful who used to cheer him but were often frustrated by him, too.
"I was going to have to face that at some point," Fleury said. "I'm just happy to be playing."
Veteran Kovalev
Alexei Kovalev is no longer the young, enigmatic player with worlds of talent that often seemed untapped.
Flashes of brilliance would come, but not always on a consistent basis.
It's been eight years since he won the Stanley Cup, and now he is starring with the Pittsburgh Penguins, second on the team in scoring only because he is playing with Mario Lemieux -- the top scorer in the NHL.
But he says he never worried about criticism then or now.
"My goal has always been to improve my game year after year, you know, not be the same player every year, but become better and better, be more consistent," the now 29-year-old forward said. "You know, that's what I do. I don't really care about what people say."
And with his veteran status and advanced age, he needs to get his body in motion early in the day. Gone are the days when he was a 19-year-old rookie. He hits the ice in the morning of game days to get going.
"It's like a little wake-up call for me," he said. "I have to go out there, put skates on. I feel more comfortable with it. Kind of a little stretch, you go 15, 20 minutes. It's a good thing for me. I don't know how the other players feel. It's very important for me to skate a little bit."