Patrik Elias will miss tonight's game against the Islanders after tweaking his groin in Friday's 2-1 shootout win over Buffalo. Devils coach Brent Sutter said he found out earlier today that Elias would be unavailable against the Isles.
"He's sore. That's all I know," Sutter said. "Too sore to play, obviously."
Sutter planned to move Rod Pelley up to play in Elias' spot between Dainius Zubrus and Brian Gionta at least for the start of the game because he didn't want to shake up his other two lines. Left wing Mike Rupp will dress on the fourth line with right wing Arron Asham with the three centers rotating between them. The Devils will also go with seven defensemen again.
Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro will miss second game in a row with a left knee sprain. Wade Dubielewicz will start in his place.
No chance of carry-over from the strong game he had yesterday then. Unfortunate injury - hope he's not out for long.
Posted by: Laura | December 29, 2007 at 06:21 PM
Shades of Madden from last season... you wonder "hey, why is *insert name here* not busting it, why does he stink.", and then you remember "hey, he screwed up his groin at the beginning of the season."
Well, that happened to Patty, and now he's going to pay for it all year. That was his best skating effort of the season and it leaves him hurt.
Posted by: Arrrgh | December 29, 2007 at 06:24 PM
That's a shame. Even though he didn't score, I thought the Sabres game was the best of the season for Patty. He was out of his mind out there. Here's hoping it isn't anything serious.
Posted by: Bill | December 29, 2007 at 06:28 PM
Groin injuries are the ones that worry me the most. You can really never know what's going to happen. Hopefully it's just a minor thing. Look at what happened with Sakic in Colorado. He was supposed to miss a couple of games because of a groin. The couple of games turned out to be 12-13 games and now he's out 8-12 weeks. God I hate those kinda injuries.
TG, any updates on Pando and his injury?
Posted by: Devilswede | December 29, 2007 at 06:35 PM
Tom, do you think this is just precautionary b/c the Devils next game isn't until Wendesday night? Just ashame this happened after such an inspired effort by Patrik last night.
Posted by: Jason | December 29, 2007 at 06:38 PM
I'm sure playing it safe was at least part of the decision for him not to play.
Also, someone asked a couple of weeks ago about Jari Viuhkola returning to Finland. I asked Lou Lamoriello about that today and he said Viuhkola wanted to return because his wife wasn't happy here and he wasn't playing that much after suffering a back injury. He is playing in Finland now and the Devils retain his NHL/AHL rights.
Posted by: TG | December 29, 2007 at 06:52 PM
Also, Pandolfo said last night that might skate on Monday. That would be just the second time he's skated since he was injured on Nov. 28.
Posted by: TG | December 29, 2007 at 06:53 PM
TG, can you by any chance verify for us that the Devils actually PRACTICE the powerplay?
Posted by: Jason | December 29, 2007 at 07:23 PM
I saw them do it on Thursday morning for a decent portion of their practice.
Posted by: TG | December 29, 2007 at 10:57 PM