Madden likely out again

Devils center John Madden will probably miss Friday's game against Florida and more because the cut on his right ankle is more of a problem than he had hoped.

Madden skated briefly before practice today and then came out with the team, but couldn't make it through the whole practice. "I thought I'd be able to get through the whole practice and suit up tomorrow," he said.

Now, he doesn't think he will play against the Panthers, "Unless something happens between now and tomorrow that I'm not aware of."

Madden said he had two problems. The first was that the inside of the skate is rubbing against the cut, though he put an extra piece of padding over the it. The second was a lack of strength in his ankle.

"I don't know why, but I just feel like I don't have much strength in it," he said. "It's just very uncomfortable and I'm unconfident."

Now, after feeling confident all week that he would play Friday, Sunday's game against Toronto is also in doubt and Madden isn't sure when he'll be back. "Hopefully, tomorrow we'll try it again and see how it goes," he said.

With Madden unlikely to play, Devils coach Brent Sutter said he is considering dressing seven defensemen and 11 forwards against the Panthers and indicated defenseman Karel Rachunek might get back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 21. Rachunke was initially out with an ankle injury, but has been healthy for more than a week.

There was some good news injury-wise as Jay Pandolfo participated in the first half of the full practice after skating by himself earlier in the day. Pandolfo had not practiced with the team since he sustained a pubic bone ligament injury slamming into the boards on Nov. 28 against Dallas.

"I'm just trying to do more stuff every day and see how I react and so far so good," Pandolfo said. "I'm just taking it slow."

Pandolfo still doubts he'll be back before the all-star break.

Right wing Cam Janssen, who practiced for the second time this week with the team, said he hasn't been told anything about possibly being sent to the minors to play games in his recovery from right shoulder surgery.

The Devils spent a large portion of today's practice on the power play after going 0-for-5 in their loss Wednesday to the Isles.

Today's lines and defense pairs:

Forwards: Zubrus-Elias-Gionta; Parise-Zajac-Lagenbrunner; Pelley-Madden (left early)-Clarkson; Rupp-Brylin-Asham; Tallackson-Pandolfo-Janssen.

Defensemen: White-Mottau; Oduya-Martin; Vishnevski-Greene; Brookbank-Rachunek

Comments

[Jeff]

wouldn't it be ironic if Cam came back against the Leafs? i know it's extremely unlikely, but just think about it for a second...

[RJ Arditti]

This definitely doesn;t help the team much, but hey injuries are a very real part of any professional sports team, and Madden very rarely doesn;t play if he can help it. And when it comes to a player as important as Madden its better to err on the side of caution IMO. so heres to a speedy recovery for Maddog!!!

[Sarah]

Bad news about Madden, but good to hear Rachunek could be back and Pandolfo is getting closer. Hopefully we'll be nearly healthy after the All-Star weekend.

[slappy]

Doesn't sound too promising for Madden, might be a great idea to acutally do the MRI they should have done the other day to see what damage if any there is. Sounds like he's also concerned about the feeling that the ankle doesn't have the stength he was expecting it to have.

[Devilswede]

I don't trust the Devils a bit when it comes to injuries. Pando was supposed to be out for a couple of days but has missed..what..22 games? Madden saying that he doesn't know why the ankle is weak also worries me. It could be something the doctors didn't detect.

[TG]

Madden said the MRI wasn't necessary. The doctors looked at it and it wasn't in an area where there were any major tendons. I think it's more that the the cut is just in a bad spot.

[Maxwell]

I realize that when they work on the PP, they also have to work on the PK, but I feel like they should ALSO emphasize the PK while MadDog is out. I would have Gionta, Parise, Zubrus, Rachunek, and Mottau vs. Elias, Langs, White, and Martin.

TG - how do they practice their EXTENSIVE Power Plays in practices. Is it like how I'd imagine, or do they just rotate guys in and out with less regard to lines and more regard to situation/positioning?

[frankied]

I wanted to ask TG the same thing, Maxwell. I'm curious how exactly they practice the powerplay. To me, the biggest problem last night was just getting into the zone and setting up. Once they are set up, they are pretty good. It's the rush up the ice, entering the zone with either the dump and chase or carrying it over the line that needs the most work, imo.

[jules]

Well...this sucks. I'm glad that Pando is doing better, but I was hoping that Madden would be back against Florida. Hopefully his ankle will start feeling better and it won't take too long to heal.

[Yaron]

This team is just having such bad luck with injuries this year that if it wasn't so depressing would actually be a little funny. Out of 45 games played, I think we've had a full roster for 3 or 4.

[Brandon]

Whats the deal w/ Rachunek? Why has he sat out a lot of the season? I know a lot of it w/ injury but he has been a h. scratch a lot. I know they wanted to keep the good times rolling with the 6 Dman, but I hate to say it - I'd like to see Greene sit in place of him. I don't know why, but Greene DEFENSIVELY has been been disappointing (recently) .. not to mention Rachunek would be great for our PP woes .

[Pat]

The team may think the 5 man in a straight line rush works but what happens is one guy gets ahead of the play and they dump it in every time. If you don't have any of those players coming up the ice at different angles, you have nowhere to go with a pass if the PK steps up on the puck carrier. They need to start letting the people with some moves or speed rush the puck in. Speed will back the defenders off and let the rest get in the zone. It does us no good to waste the first 40 seconds chasing the puck up and down the ice, plus it gives the PK a major mental edge.

[jules]

Tom, is Tallackson still up with the big club? With the injury to Madden taking longer to heal than originally anticipated, any chance that Tally is sent down and Vrana called up?

[Brandon]

Pat - I agree. I'm not really sure the function of the 5 man line rush. I think it may be that the defense is leading the rush and the fowards have to "wait" or slow up causing a line of players. Obviously, Gomez worked. When you send your center in fast, its easier to set up and allow the defense to man the points and fowards to support the puck carrier. Unfortunately we don't have any speedy, shifty centers .. Yeah, Madden is speedy and Elias is shifty but neither has both tools to fly through players. Niedermayer was the exception for us b/c he lead the rush as a Dman but he, of course, is unbelievable. The solution for what we have? Have Zubrus lead the rush. He is the closest we have to someone beating players one-on-one w/ speed and skill. Zub gets better every game so I hope it is only a matter of time. BTW, anyone know if we have ANY prospects in our system that are *playmaking* centers? Specifically, guys who can pass like Mottau (yes, he is our best passer) but are similar to Gomez? ::sigh:: .. Lonnggggg post, I know, but I'm venting and inventing ideas ... =)

[Laura]

I thought Zubrus was very impressive on the power play last night...one bright spot there. I frankly didn't notice Tallackson more than maybe once throughout the game - if the Devils are looking for callups to step up, haven't they realized that he has been unable to distinguish himself at all? Clarke came up, put shots on net, scored one, had an overall strong game. Tallackson brings mediocrity to this team when it really needs a spark. I'd like to see Vrana come up and put forth the kind of effort Clarkson did last year when he came up.

[matt]

wow. it seems we've given TG lots of questions to answer ha.

[frankiedue]

I have another beef... about dump-ins. Too many times I see players waiting at the blue line for the dump in. Then when the puck is finally dumped in, they sprint to the puck, but are beaten by the defenseman because they took too long to get there. Dump-ins are about timing and players should already be at full speed when entering the zone to chase the puck (gionta is good at this). They shouldn't have to start skating from a standstill when entering the zone. They will get beaten every time and will just waste their energy with fruitless forechecking.

[TG]

The Devils practice the power play like most teams. The 10 players or so that are on the two units practice the power play. The rest of the players act as the PK units. They usually split it up with each unit at opposite ends of the ice. Rachunek rotated in with Andy Greene at one point with one unit today with Mottau as the other point man. There wasn't any work today on breaking out and dumping puck in to set up. It was more puck movement, getting the defensemen to move for open point shots, battling in the corners and the along the boards for the puck, stuff like that.
Sutter mentioned today that the Devils were poor through the neutral zone against the Isles and that let to some of their problems on the power play. DiPietro also hustled to get to a lot of dump-ins.

Tallackson is still with the team, as noted in line combinations above. He skated on the "fifth line" with Pandolfo and Janssen. I'm not really sure I understand the obsession with getting Vrana up here now. There's no purpose to calling him up to play four minutes on the fourth line. He's not replacing anyone on the top two lines and he's not going to be played in a defensive role. Clarkson got his chance to play on the Gomez line last year because of Gionta's groin injury. Plus, Clarkson is a guy that can also be effective playing physically on the fourth line, which he also did last year. I guess if you want to put together a non-checking third line while Madden is out, maybe Vrana could get some time there, but otherwise let Vrana play in Lowell and keep developing. If there's a need for a center on the top two lines, then maybe he'll get his chance.

[Steve]

Vrana - I think the consensus among Devil fans is that Vrana could be the player to help "jump start" this Devil offense. The Devils have problems finishing either on the 5 on 5 or on the powerplay. This problem is not going to be solved bu giving either Brylin or Pelley more minutes at center.

What most fans fail to realize is that when the Devils won their three cups, they were one of the top seven teams in scoring.

Bring Vrana up, shift Elias back to the wing and move Zubrus down to the third line.

I'd also go back to dressing seven defenseman on a regular basis. The Devils seem to take less penalties when they play with seven defensemen.

[jules]

It's not really an obsession. I'm not pinning my hopes on a call up, but Vrana has supposedly been Lowell's best player this year and I'd like to see how he does with the big club.

[MoonDragn]

Dunno what games some of you have been watching but Greene has consistently been one of our better defensemen. The problem though is he's paired with Vishnevski right now who doesn't alway support him when getting the puck out. That can be a real problem especially since he can get bumped off the puck. But he sure looked better than White and Mottau out there.

Martin is looking like the best one right now but even he made a few errors in that game. You can see our D exposed now that Madden is out and how important Maddog is to our defense.

[Mike]

true that Vrana may have Lowell's best player so far, but his scouting report compares him to Sergei Brylin, who put up very good numbers in the AHL (he played with Elias and Sykora). It doesn't sound like he'll be a savior, but he'll provide a lot more than that stiff Tallackson.

[Mike]

true that Vrana may have Lowell's best player so far, but his scouting report compares him to Sergei Brylin, who put up very good numbers in the AHL (he played with Elias and Sykora). It doesn't sound like he'll be a savior, but he'll provide a lot more than that stiff Tallackson.

[Falcone]

First off I agree with a prior post, when it comes to injury's and the Devils you never know what the real deal is. Which is fine, as long as that player doesn't come back too early. I personally thought Pando fractured something. I do think Madden got an MRI, however I just think its a bad cut. More of a gash.

TG brings up a good point about Vrada, however I do agree with Steve. We have 2 lines right now, might be good to bring the kid up and put him on the 3rd line. Let him jump start the team. DC is a Randy McKay type player, however he's on his back more than an $10 whore. He spends so much time getting up off the ice in a game if you add up all that time it probably equates to a minute. Let DC be a 4th liner with Ruppy and Asham. Pelly plays like Madden did when he first came up, I hope Rob gets more of a scoring touch. I still think Sarge needs to go. But with Madden out, bring Vrada up for a game or two. See how he plays. Won't hurt.

[Mike]

true that Vrana may have Lowell's best player so far, but his scouting report compares him to Sergei Brylin, who put up very good numbers in the AHL (he played with Elias and Sykora). It doesn't sound like he'll be a savior, but he'll provide a lot more than that stiff Tallackson.