Langenbrunner won't play tonight

Devils captain Jamie Langernbrunner will miss tonight's game against Pittsburgh because he is still battling the flu. Langenbrunner was able to play in Thursday's loss to Montreal despite being sick, but wasn't able to get healthy over the all-star break.

With Langenbrunner out, Devils coach Brent Sutter said he would dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. That means defenseman Andy Greene will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last three games.

Sutter said right wing Cam Janssen is "healthy enough to play, but he's not playing tonight."

Sutter said he finally got back to New Jersey at around 8:30 p.m. on Monday night,. The private jet he was flying back with his oldest son, Merrick, on Sunday night had mechanical problems and had to return to Calgary and make an emergency landing. A second plane scheduled to leave Monday morning also had mechanical problems and never took off. His third flight was also delayed. For those wondering, Sutter did not fine himself for missing Monday's practice.

With the team coming back after having three days off for the all-star break, Sutter gave the players the option of skating this morning. Several more than normal took it: David Clarkson, Mike Rupp, Sergei Brylin, Travis Zajac, Zach Parise, Rod Pelley, Jay Pandolfo, Janssen, Vitaly Vishnevski, Greene, Sheldon Brookbank and Kevin Weekes.

Comments

[Mike13]

Any word on whether Weekes or Brodeur will be in net?

[Ben]

its good that so many took the optional skate today, I like the dedication

[Tim]

Is anyone else worried that we're falling back into the same old scenario? The Division is tight and there are a lot of points to be had, so honestly is Weekes really going to get enough time in so that Marty is good for the playoffs?

[TG]

Brodeur is playing. Not even a question.
Last week when the coach was asked if he would rest Brodeur more after the break, he replied: "Let me ask you this: If you were his coach, would you?"

[Jeremy Kenter]

A friend raised the issue of whether Patrik Elias will ever fully recover from Hepatitis A. TG, do you think his production has been reduced because of the Hep.?

[Classic Devil]

Jeremy - look at Elias' production immediately post Hepatitis. He certainly wasn't affected then, that was perhaps the most dominant stretch of his career. It doesn't make much sense to me to say that he's still bothered by it, especially considering Hep-A doesn't usually recur this long the initial bout with the virus.

[Max]

I don't buy the "would you?" line about playing Marty all the time. I'd give Weekes 15 starts this season. I thought the reason he was brought in was to prevent another first round meltdown for Marty like last season.

Weekes isn't chopped liver. He's a decent 'tender who can handle meaningful games with points on the line. Besides, I think the rest of the team is spoiled for having Marty. The D gets too used to letting him steal games. Going with Marty might remind the team they need to play decent D once in a while.

[Max]

Obviously, that last line should have read "going WITHOUT Marty".

[Mike]

Tom, has Sutter at all hinted that Weekes-y will be in the nets against the Kings on Saturday, after Marty plays the Rangers on Friday ?

[Mike]

Tom, has Sutter at all hinted that Weekes-y will be in the nets against the Kings on Saturday, after Marty plays the Rangers on Friday ?

[TG]

Elias did play some of his best hockey following his return from the hepatitis and he dominated against the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. That's probably why they offered him all of that money.

[Mike]

Weekes has got to play more, Brodeur is great and all but I think he has too much control over the team. It has been really frustrating this year a couple of times when the Devils have been getting blown out that Brodeur never even gets pulled. Weekes is more than adequate, let's remember this year I think he got 3 wins before Marty got his first. Unfortunately, I think Weekes will be lucky to get 10 starts this year and we will probably see another first round flameout, especially with d-men like Oduya playing in front of him.

[Koho88]

Just curious, is Coach's son named after Wayne Merrick?

[Garrett]

It's certainly a double edged sword with Brodeur......You don't want to burn him out, but if you give weekes too many starts, we could fall out of contention for the division. It's too tight right to worry about resting Brodeur. Just remember, we can have him as rested up as we want come May, but it won't matter if we're not in the playoffs. If we can put together a good stretch over the final 30 or so games, then we'll be in a position to give Brodeur some rest before the playoffs start.

[jules]

Here’s a question for you, Tom:

According to one of Boston’s beat writers, in a retelling of a story originally told by Aaron Ward on a Boston radio station, in one of our home games toward the end of last season, White was trash talking the Bruins. Big, bad Zdeno Chara got so riled up that he opened the door to the Devils bench and threatened to beat down White if he didn’t apologize. According to Ward and the beat writer, who seem to be passing this story off as fact, White apologized(http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/bruins/articles/2008/01/27/chara_undertakes_big_turnaround/).

Now, this seems like a big wad of BS to me and I’m sure to other Devils fans, especially since it sounds like it should have been a pretty big deal, but isn’t mentioned anywhere other than in this Boston paper almost a year later. Trashing talking doesn’t bother me, I see no reason why White couldn’t beat down Chara at the time if he felt so inclined, and I don’t see why Chara and the Bruins would matter at all to White…But I don’t remember anything like this happening in that game and was wondering if you did.

[JJ]

Same speculation every year except this year I thought we got Weekes to give Marty more rest. Maybe it'll be down the stretch but I can't really see where when looking at the schedule. I like Weeksie but Marty likes to play a lot to keep focused. Except this Saturday and another one in March, even resting him on the back to back games is tough because you're looking at divisional games there too! It's not gonna be easy to get much of a lead in this division so getting Marty more rest will likely be tough unless he asks for it. Maybe Weekes will play 5 more games???

[lucas ferguson]

Jersey Sucks balls, even if they do make it to the playoffs, they'll obviously lose firsat round, and they are definatly not gonna beat the pens tonight

[Garrett]

We'll lose in the first round because we have the best goalie in the game? Nice logic there champ

[TG]

I asked Colin about it this morning. He really didn't want to talk about it because it happened last year. When I asked about the alleged trash talking, Chara's alleged threat and the alleged apology, White would only say, "That wasn't what was said."

So, I guess something did happen, but I don't remember it and I'm guessing it might not have happened as it was described in that story.

I went back and checked my scorebook and notes from that game. Pandolfo scored with about five minutes left to put the Devils up 3-1. That was the first time in the game the Devils were up by two goals. I have nothing in my notes about any incident involving Chara and there were no penalties called in the third period of that game.

My only notes involving Chara from that game were about him hitting Jamie Langenbrunner multiple times. There were some jokes after that game about Chara mistaking No. 15 for No. 14.

[Tom]

we suck but u come on to our sites to read about us, thanks for reading ur an idiot

[Brodie30]

There is always something involving Chara. Judging from their TV broadcast, I wouldn't put it past Boston media to take what is likely some common on-ice banter between the two and fabricating a story making Chara a knight in shining armor. If White apologized, it means he said something far worse thus warranting an apology. And it wouldn't be because big, bad Chara came to the bench and threatened him. Sounds like a 'based on actual events' type story.

[Bill]

TG, thanks so much for the info. It's great to have a medium like this to bring up a question to a writer, and in turn have the question answered by the players themselves. Keep up the great work, and thanks again for bringing us fans even closer to the team we follow.

[Chris]

honestly there is no way in hell that Chara intimidated White into an apology. I've been in a fight with someone bigger than me by about the same amount Chara is bigger than White and i'm certainly no NHL tough guy type like White.

As Brodie30 said if White in fact did apologize for something said it was because he really stepped over the line and a coach or his own self respect told him it was the right thing to do.

It feels like there is always some big draw back in the high profile defenceman that we are rumored to be (or have been interested in). Phaneuf has that whole alleged ego of a god and Chara being a constant annoyance to everyone on this team (Gionta, Langs, White, Patty that last game).

[jules]

Tom, thanks for your efforts.