Devils center John Madden took a big step toward returning to the lineup Sunday against Toronto by making it through this morning's practice at Prudential Center with no problems with the cut on his right ankle. Madden has missed the last two games because of the cut and seemed doubtful on Friday, but was more upbeat today, though he held back from saying he would definitely play against the Maple Leafs.
"I felt a lot better," he said. "I wouldn't say definitely, but I would say probable. I'm leaning that way. I'm hoping to wake up tomorrow and prepare to play a hockey game."
Madden said he felt "a big difference" when he woke this morning than he did on Friday. "It wasn't stiff," he said of his ankle." You didn't have to rub all the swelling out of the area to get some movement."
Devils coach Brent Sutter said the decision on whether Madden will play would be made after the pre-game warmups. The team will dress 21 players for warmup in case Madden isn't able to play.
Defenseman Paul Martin did not take part in today's practice. His right knee and ankle have been bothering him since he skated into a goal post in Wednesday's loss to the Islanders, but Sutter said Martin will play Sunday. "We just wanted him to rest his body a little bit," Sutter said. "He has a few bumps and bruises. We wanted to make sure he's ready for tomorrow."
After criticizing the play of the line of Dainius Zubrus, Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta following Friday's 2-1 loss to Florida, Sutter broke up that line today. He moved Gionta to the checking line with Sergei Brylin and Madden and replaced Gionta with David Clarkson. Assuming Madden plays, Brylin, Madden and Gionta will likely play head to head against Mats Sundin's line.
"I didn't think Patty's line played that well in the last couple of games, as well as they needed to play," Sutter said. "The three of them seemed to be fighting it a little bit. Maybe a little change will help them."
Martin Brodeur will start again in net and Sutter indicated he "probably" also will start the other two remaining games before the all-star break (in Philadelphia on Tuesday and at home vs. Montreal on Thursday) as well
Today's lines and defense pairs:
Forwards: Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner; Zubrus-Elias-Clarkson; Brylin-Madden-Gionta; Rupp-Pelley, Asham; Pandolfo-(empty)-Janssen.
Defense: White-Mottau; (emtpy)-Oduya; Vishnevski-Greene; Brookbank-Rachunek.
Clarkson for Gionta, Oh you have to be kidding me.
Posted by: Jason | January 19, 2008 at 01:07 PM
I've actually been more and more impressed with Clarkson's play. He is strong, feisty, and is developing some really nice skills. His line of Clarkson-Rupp-Asham might have been our best the last two games. Yesterday, when he got into a fight, I actually said to my gf "Clarkson needs to stop fighting. He is beginning to get too important to be out 5 minutes."
Posted by: Yaron | January 19, 2008 at 01:13 PM
Jason, I'm not sure why you keep complaining about the line changes. Zubrus, Gionta, and Elias weren't playing well, so something else is being tried. As I recall, a couple of days ago you were advocating putting Rupp on the first line in place of Elias.
Posted by: stoonbora | January 19, 2008 at 01:15 PM
How about reuniting Elias, Gio, Parise? I don't know why Brent split our best combination up to begin with...kind of mind boggling.
elias-parise-gionta
Langenbrunner-zajac-zubrus
clarkson-madden-brylin
clarke-pelley-rupp
those should be our lines
moved brylin back to the 4th line when pando gets back and say bye bye to clarke, for now. asham is garbage, i really don't like him at all.
Posted by: James | January 19, 2008 at 01:54 PM
And Sutter still has no clue about the offense....
Posted by: Devilswede | January 19, 2008 at 02:08 PM
elias is more a creator offensively....atleast when its not game winning goal time or a shootout....i like clarkson a lot, but who is better at finishing a play set up from elias, clarkson or gionta.....clarkson does have some talent, but he seems to get the more ugly type of goals as of now, which is def. fine, gionta is much more the finisher.....another blunder by sutter who has to keep changing lines......i know we aren't producing enough but i am not entirely worried about it and i think it'll come together in time and getting healthy will help...madden and pandolfo were contributing offensively...please sutter, when they come back just stick with the lines to build chemistry
Posted by: edweaver | January 19, 2008 at 02:09 PM
Gio, Mad Dog, and Sarge on a checking line? That may be the smallest checking line I've ever seen.
Good to see Clarkson get rewarded for at least a game. Pity that it kind of sends my Crash Line Redux idea by the boards.
Posted by: PhantomNJ | January 19, 2008 at 02:14 PM
Enough with changing the lines. Maybe they play bad because every other game everyone is mixed up again.
Posted by: jdr30 | January 19, 2008 at 02:28 PM
I think Sutter is doing the right thing by mixing up the lines a little bit. Zubrus-Elias-Gionta hasn't been producing offensively lately, so why not move a feisty, gritty player like Clarkson up?
Posted by: Brian | January 19, 2008 at 02:32 PM
Zubrus Elias Gionta don't produce because none of them are centers. How can you have a top line, made up of 3 wings??? That is why i wanted to try Rupp up there, at least he is a natural Center.
Posted by: Jason | January 19, 2008 at 02:44 PM
TG, TSN allegedly reported last night that Darryl Sutter was in New Jersey for the game last night and is supposedly scouting NJ, Florida, Boston, and Montreal for a deal that could involve Alex Tanguay. Did you see Sutter last night, or do you know more about this?
Posted by: FTC | January 19, 2008 at 03:35 PM
I love Rupp but he doesn't have half the skill of Zubrus, Elias, or Gionta. There is no way he belongs with those guys. Zubrus and Elias have both played center in past years and have shown they are capable of the position. The problem right now is that they are both in slumps, I think a minor change, like swapping Gionta and Clarkson to provide a spark is all that is needed. I think people are being too quick to panic as of late. Sutter is a good coach and knows a lot more about hockey and this team than us fans, lets show some faith in him.
Posted by: Brian | January 19, 2008 at 04:03 PM
Some thoughts:
Clarkson and Zubrus will attract a lot of attention and allow Patty some room.
Gionta Madden and Sarge have good speed, and would counter-attalk well
Zajac Parise Langs are gelling again, as they themselves state, so leaving that line alone is fine.
Rupp Pelley Asham doesnt excite me much, but maybe they can be as effective as when Clarkson's on the line, but the jury's out on that and I might be a tad doubtful.
Looking forward to Janssen and Pando's return and how that affects the lines.
Posted by: Craigwell | January 19, 2008 at 05:59 PM
I agree that the first line had to be broken up, but instead I would have liked to see Zubrus back with Madden because if I recall he did fairly well on the checking line, and I would like to see Clarkson playing left wing with Elias and Gio.
Posted by: Pat D | January 19, 2008 at 06:13 PM
I think having Gionta on Madden's wing is a pretty good idea, actually. I think he played there a few years ago.
Posted by: jules | January 19, 2008 at 09:19 PM
So, we are on the second place tied with Flyers, let see how fast we going to sink even more deeper in standings.
Posted by: ALEXNJD | January 19, 2008 at 09:35 PM
We're actually third in the division now. Flyers have better winning percentage. All of a sudden...we're third in the division and the 9:th seed in the Conference is just 5 points behind. The last two games cost us bigtime...two embarrasing games...
Posted by: Devilswede | January 19, 2008 at 09:40 PM
Lets bench a couple guys for a game or two and put some AHLers in the line and when I say bench I mean like I don't know like Parise maybe Langs. Lets see what heppens.
Posted by: ALEXNJD | January 19, 2008 at 09:52 PM
Alex,
How many more AHLers do you want on the roster???? Why don't we send Martin and White down and have an entire minor league D corps.
Posted by: Pat | January 19, 2008 at 10:27 PM
Hey Pat as you can see our cap prety much filed up only couple of milions to spare and we still can not score goles. I wonder how Brodure fells when you show up for the game and no one else did.
Posted by: ALEXNJD | January 19, 2008 at 10:34 PM
Why not put the PEG line back together???? They clicked. They worked together. Zubrus-Zajac-Langenbrunner benefited from that move as well. Why not try it again? *Sigh*
Ah well, that is why I am not an NHL coach. Kudos to Clarkson, maybe Sutter can tie a towel to his skates so he won't fall all over. He's playing well so hopefully this will work.
Posted by: Danofan355 | January 19, 2008 at 11:16 PM
I know you have to be a coach to make a dicisions,but I still don't get it what exactly Sutter sees in Oduya?
Posted by: ALEXNJD | January 19, 2008 at 11:32 PM
They're not 5 points out of ninth. They have 2 at hand on the Rangers, 3 on Atlanta and 4 on Carolina. So that's leads of as much as 9/11/13 points respectively.
Posted by: aarrghhh | January 19, 2008 at 11:35 PM
^ lol yeah because the Devils are going to win all those games in hadn riiiiight.
Posted by: Xander Crews | January 20, 2008 at 01:12 AM
1-1 is 7 on the Rangers
2-1 is 10 on Atlanta
2-1-1 is 8 on Carolina
They're not going to lose all of the games in hand either.
Posted by: aarrghhh | January 20, 2008 at 04:22 AM