Already dealing with most of their stars being hurt, the Detroit Red Wings lost another top player on Monday night. Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson hurt his knee in a collission with Phoenix’s Shane Doan in the first period Monday, and Detroit GM Ken Holland confirmed that he’ll be out at least two weeks.

This injury weakens an already-thin blue line for Detroit, who has been without Niklas Kronwall since November 21. The Red Wings are also skating without injured forwards Johan Franzen, Valterri Filppula, Jason Williams and Dan Cleary, and are in third place, four point behind Chicago in the Central Division.

Reports out of Detroit on Sunday are that the Red Wings have lost another key player  to injury.

Niklas Kronwall sprained the MCL in his left knee in an open-ice collision with Georges Laraque in Montreal on Saturday, and will reportedly miss the next four to eight weeks.

This news hits the Wings at a terrible time, as they have a busy schedule against good offensive teams coming up. This week, Detroit travels to Nashville on Monday before hosting high-scoring Atlanta on Wednesday and Calgary on Friday. The Predators sit just one point behind the Wings for third in the Central Division entering Monday night’s contest.

Kronwall, 28, is arguably Detroit’s most physical player. He has scored 13 points (5 G, 8 A) through Saturday’s game.

Kronwall joins Johan Franzen, Jason Williams and Valterri Filppula on the bench for the Wings.

Detroit C Valterri Filppula broke his wrist and will miss 6-8 weeks.

Various media outlets are reporting early Friday morning that the Detroit Red Wings have lost center Valterri Filppula for between six and eight weeks.

Filppula broke his right wrist in Thursday night’s shootout loss at Edmonton. He had five points (two goals, three assists) and was averaging 18:24 in ice time in ten games before the injury. Filppula was third among Detroit centers in average ice time, behind only Pavel Datysuk and Johan Franzen.

Franzen, however, is out for the next four months with a torn ACL.

Detroit is now down two of their top centers, and were already dealing with summer losses of Marian Hossa and Jiri Hudler. The Red Wings loss to the Oilers on Thursday drops their season record to 4-4-3 (11 points), which ties them with Nashville and St. Louis for last place in the Central Division.

Yes, there are only five teams in the Central, and three are tied for last with 11 points (four behind the first place Blackhawks), but there’s just something about saying it that sounds so good.

The Detroit Red Wings are tied for last place in the division.