Detroit – Henrik Zetterberg says he is happy, adjusting to retirement, attending Red Wings practices and games and beginning to occasionally look back at his career.
He emerged from behind the automatic doors of the Red Wings dressing room, smiling that easy, familiar smile, striding amiably along the lower concourse of Little Caesars Arena.
His unruly back, a condition that evolved over at least 12 years, spurring a variety of symptoms and dysfunctions, prematurely ended one of the handful of greatest careers in Wings’ history. But Zetterberg, 38, seemed sanguine.
Less than a month into his retirement, he reflected on his career, and he revealed new details of the evolution of a back condition that ended it prematurely.