Sutter misses practice

Devils head coach Brent Sutter couldn’t make it back from visiting his family in Red Deer, Alberta in time for today’s practice because of flight delays.

Sutter was originally supposed to fly back from Calgary on Sunday night, but his flight was cancelled because of bad weather. His reschedule flight this morning took over, but quickly returned to Calgary. When he was able to get on a later flight to Newark, the team pushed back practice from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., but that flight was delayed too and he didn’t get back in time. Assistants John MacLean and Larry Robinson ran practice in Sutter’s absence.

Everyone else made it back in time for practice. Right wing Jamie Langenbrunner didn’t practice, however, because he was still ill. Langenbrunner played in Thursday’s loss to Montreal despite being ill, but his status for Tuesday night’s game against Pittsburgh is unknown.

Left wing Jay Pandolfo (pubic bone ligament) made it through his first full practice with the team since he was injured on Nov. 28. Pandolfo skated with fourth-liners, Mike Rupp, Rod Pelley and Cam Janssen, who has returned from his three-game conditioning stint with Lowell.

Pandolfo still isn’t sure when he’ll be ready to play in a game. “It’s still kind of unknown,” he said. “If I keep getting better every day, then I guess I’m getting closer.”

Janssen, who is coming back from Oct. 4 surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, said he did not get in any fights in his three games with Lowell, but believes he is ready to play in an NHL game.

“I’m ready,” he said. “It’s been long enough. It was tough, but I got through it and I feel great.”

Janssen said he would have fought, but the opportunity didn’t present itself. “I would have liked to get in a scrap and tested everything out,” he said. “Oh well. I guess I’m going to have to do it up here now.”

Center John Madden said he had the stitches removed from the cut on his right ankle following Thursday’s game. He said his ankle felt much better after the three days off for the all-star break because most of the swelling and stiffness is gone.

Backup goalie Kevin Weekes and his fiancée, Stephanie, were married on Saturday in Barbados, West Indies. Weekes’ parents were born in Barbados before immigrating to Canada and he goes there often during the off-season.

Today’s line combinations and defense pairs:

Forwards: Zubrus-Elias-Clarkson; Parise-Zajac-Asham; Brylin-Madden-Gionta; Pandolfo/Rupp-Pelley-Janssen.

Defense: White-Mottau; Oduya-Martin; Vishnevski-Rachunek; Greene-Brookbank.

Comments

[Brodie30]

It would be funny if the team made Sutter do 'suicides' for missing practice.

[Bill]

Congrats to Weekes!

Welcome back Cam!

Stay steady on the road to recovery, Pando!

LET'S GO DEVILS!

[Jon]

Congrats weekes!!!! hes such a class act, hes impossible not to like

[stoonbora]

I'm surprised that one of Sutter's flights took off at all. The weather here in western Canada is brutal, I was walking through knee-deep snow just to get from my front door to my car.

[Sarah]

Congrats to Weekes!

Glad to hear Madden's ankle has healed, and that Pandolfo is getting closer. Hope Langs gets better soon, we'd miss him tomorrow.

I hope they give Cam a shot -- maybe against the Rangers. He may not be the most talented player ever but he brings an energy that I just love. Could be the spark we need to final beat them.

[Devs4Life]

Congrats to Weekes on his marriage and to Clarkson for making New Jersey proud at the Young Stars game. I really admired Jamie playing against the habs even though he was sick, way to be a good captain, Scptty was right about him. Hope Cam gets some playing time within the next three games, I think its time to bench Asham or Rupp so he can get some action.

[Craigwell]

I say Asham

[JP]

Definitely congratualtions in order to Weekes and glad to hear about Madden. Also awesome to hear about Pando as well.

Glad to hear that Sutter made it back alright, interesting predicement that was.

Hopefully, it'll be interesting to see what Janssen will bring to the ice this time. While its great an all that he's improved on his fighting skills, I really think he needs to work on his puck movement and shots. I'm going to be bold here and say that he got lucky on his first goal. He could be a very good asset to us, if he could improve on those things as well.

[Chris]

Congrats to Kevin he is, in my opinion, truely invaluable to this team because he is always up-beat and keeps peoples spirits up. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

[Maxwell]

It's time to get Greeney back in the lineup. I think his style of play doesn't sit well with Sutter because he looks so calm and collected; Sutter seems to love a guy like Clarkson who is 100% hustle. I like Clarkson's style too, but you have to see that Greene doesn't get flustered like Oduya (whose fantasy ownership went from 1 to 4 percent this last week, haha) and cough the puck up in the defensive zone.

Also, I think that Cam and Ash are going to have to fight for that last spot on the fourth line. I think Ash gave us a different look to start the season, but it may be time for Cam to come in for the remainder. It just seems to me that Asham's skills are not where they need to be. He gets presented some quality scoring chances and simply can't connect because of a mishandling of the puck or a fanned shot. I can forgive certain circumstances, and obviously when it's once-in-a-while, but Ash is consistently bad at handling the puck. It's a fact. I would like to see where Cam is with his skills.

I said it before, but it's even more important now: Crosby isn't the one who scares me, it's Malkin. Now, with Sidney out of the lineup, Malkin is on the first line and is tearing it up. We need Johnny Madden to have a good game keeping Evgeni in check (if that's how Sutter matches it up). I am also predicting a big week from Brian Gionta. He's obviously one of the fastest in the league, and when a guy like that gets a good rest he can do scary damage.

Congrats to Weekes - I like that dude a lot.

This is how I would LOVE to see the lines worked out:

Parise-Zajac-Gionta
Zubrus-Elias-Langs
Pando-Madden-Brylin
Rupp/Cam-Pelley-Clarkson

Our D is a huge freakin' mess. Vish and Rach are both shaky (at best) and Oduya is awful (plus/minus blah blah blah - I watch him play and he stinks). I guess Mottau has gotten a lot better, and Brookbank is still somewhat of a mystery. That leaves Martin, White, and Greene (who has been a health scratch the last 3 games). Obviously, everyone knows this is a problem because every other post is about trading for a no.1 D-man. I don't think it's going to happen; I think Lou will scout a nobody and bring him to NJ so he doesn't have to pay him very much to start. Anyways, here's how I would align this cluster&#*$:

Martin-Mottau
White-Greene
Vishnevski-Rachunek
Brookbank-anyone else buy Oduya because he needs to be fired

[Elias26]

Maxwell, Not sure how you can complain about Vish. He is one of our better D men this year and has continued to improve.

Janssen has to throw the body more and fight less. I hope he challenges Asham for his spot. Aron is one of the bigger disappointments IMO.

I can see Lou doing a trade for a vetran D man. A 2 for 1 type deal, possibly involving Green.

[MoonDragn]

I don't know which games you've been watching but Vish has definately not been one of our better D. In fact he's been one of our worse. I can attribute at least 5 games we lost because of his puck deflection. He's scored more goals on Marty than some of our opponents.

He also leaves opponents wide open for a pass by going out of his way to check someone. Which is why when Greene got paired up with him his +/- went way down.

He might look like he's great blocking shots but trust me Marty would be better off if Vish stays the heck away from the front of the net.

[Mike]

with Cam back to bring some energy, I think Asham is just biding his time until dumps him off to another team for a draft pick. With Clarkson eventually on the 3rd line and Cam on the 4th, Asham isn't needed anymore.

I think there's a good chance that Greene will be dealt for a veteran at the deadline, so Sutter's going to have play him more so the team can show off Greene's value.

[Mike]

with Cam back to bring some energy, I think Asham is just biding his time until dumps him off to another team for a draft pick. With Clarkson eventually on the 3rd line and Cam on the 4th, Asham isn't needed anymore.

I think there's a good chance that Greene will be dealt for a veteran at the deadline, so Sutter's going to have play him more so the team can show off Greene's value.

[jules]

I think Vish has been fairly solid for us, especially for a third pairing guy and on the penalty kill, and considering that he’s basically a reclamation project. I think he played best with Brookbank, but I don’t think he can be blamed for Greene and Rachunek, as both of those guys have made plenty of mistakes that didn’t have anything to do with Vish or happened when he wasn’t even on the ice. He’s also had some games when he’s made good defensive plays, but he doesn’t often get mentioned for them. And without him, besides White, there’s not much of a physical presence on D. Vish just gets into trouble when he tries to do too much, but he does lead the team in hits and blocked shots.

It’ll be interesting to see what Cam does under Sutter.

[JJ]

Thanks Moodragn - Vishnevski is out of control. His positioning sucks and his decisions when to make hits are even worse. He just hits whoever whatever whenever. If Big Bird can't fix him I don't know who can.

What I don't understand is why people keep repeatedly saying Oduya sucks. I hear it at the arena and read it here all the time. Yes he's made some serious gaffes in his own zone and he's not the strongest guy on the puck, but his play has improved nightly and he's becoming more physical in the corners and along the sideboards. He was TERRIBLE the first month of the season, but wasn't the entire defense terrible? +/- can be a deceiving stat because you have to factor in who else is on the ice when and when a player is getting minutes, but on a team that doesn't score a whole lot a -6 to +10 swing in less than 3 months is HUGE considering he does a lot of his scoring on the PP. Geez people, give the guy a break, it's only his 2nd season in the NHL he's still a major work in progress.

[MoonDragn]

Yes Oduya has been sucking less and less every game. I just hope he can keep it up. He is still terrible in his own zone but we have other guys who can do that. Which is why we need Greene. He's terrific in his own zone its just that his offense isn't there yet.

[devils3]

anyone else think its possible that lou goes after havlat on chicago? chicago is supposedly going to be active at the deadline, their management is said to be unhappy with some of their higher paid veterans, havlat and elias are apparently pretty close friends, and we were supposedly interested in havlat a while back. i have neither read nor heard anything to suggest this is even a possibility, just speculation on my part. i would think it would take gionta, then maybe someone like matvichuk to make the salaries work (though i don't know if his salary even counts against the cap), and then a young guy/draft pick. would this work? how much better does this make us (if at all)?

[Garrett]

It's certainly interesting...The thought of putting havlat and elias together....Remember, they had talked about playing together when elias was due for his new deal. As you said, they are buddies and havlat may really help out Elias in regaining his early 00s game....That being said, I wouldn't take havlat on with his salray because he's injury prone. When's the last time he played a full season? On top of all that We'd have to give them something like gionta/rachunek (maybe draft pick) for him. Not worth it.

[Garrett]

ok I looked it up..........Havlat hasn't played 70 games in a season since 01-02

He has only played 22 this year and 50 last year. Not worth the cap hit of around 2mill for the rest of this year and 6mill next year.