It's all good with coach and captain

Devils coach Brent Sutter demonstrated after today’s practice that he still has a good sense of humor about his on-the-bench spat with captain Jamie Langenbrunner during Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

One media member came across one of the Langenbrunner posters fans received on the way out of Saturday’s game and placed in on a chair next to one set up for Sutter in the media lounge. (I’d love to take credit for it, but it wasn’t me). When Sutter entered the room and saw the poster, he immediately started to laugh. Then, he sat down, put his arm around the poster (as if he were posing for a photo) and smiled.

Sutter laughed about his exchange with Langenbrunner in his post-game press conference on Saturday, so it was no surprise he said today that he has no lingering bad feelings about tit.

“Do you like that happening as far as is it something you want to see occur all the time? No,” Sutter said. “But I think there’s times that things happen and (Saturday) night there was frustration on Jamie’s part of it and I understood that. Yet, at the same time, I think he understood the intentions of the head coach that things have to be corrected. It’s not always going to be soft love with guys.”

At the time, Sutter was upset with Langenbrunner because he lost his coverage on Jack Johnson on the Kings’ second goal. Langenbrunner realized he made a mistake, but still snapped back at his coach.

Langenbrunner admitted today that it’s in his “nature” to “argue even when I’m wrong or even for the sake of arguing.”  He said Saturday’s incident was “no big deal” and there was no need to smooth things over with Sutter today.

“He’s an emotional guy and he understands it,” Langenbrunner said. “I think if you do it all the time or do it in a disrespectful way that tries to show him up, that’s one thing. But if you do it in the heat of the battle when it’s competitive that’s another thing. That’s the way I’ve always been to a fault, but I don’t think he lost any sleep over it and I didn’t lose much sleep over it either. It’s just one of those things that happen and you move on.”

Langenbrunner said he has similar exchanges with Ken Hitchcock in Dallas. Sutter said it wasn’t his first time either. He spoke earlier this season about an on-the-bench blowup with Carolina goaltender Cam Ward when both were in Red Deer.

“I’m not going to change as a coach,” Sutter said. “I’ve challenged players on benches before in junior and it’s happened with this team before this. This situation just happened where everyone saw it and it was the captain. But, I’ve never once held something personal against a player from a confrontation between a player and myself _ ever.”

Practice today lasted about 35 minutes. All players participated, including left wing Jay Pandolfo, who wouldn’t say he’s definitely going to play against the Penguins Monday night, but sounded as if he were leaning that way. Pandolfo has been out since Nov. 28 with a pubic bone ligament injury.

“I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll probably skate in the morning and see how it goes. I’m not sure, yet.”

Sutter kept his top two lines the way they were Saturday night with Zach Parise skating with Patrik Elias and Brian Gionta and Travis Zajac between Dainius Zubrus and Langenbrunner on the second line. Pandolfo skated on the checking line with John Madden and David Clarkson. Rod Pelley centered the fourth line with Mike Rupp on his left and Sergei Brylin on his right.

From those combinations, it appears that Arron Asham won’t play tonight if Pandolfo does.

The defense pairs remained the same.

Comments

[DP]

thats rough for Double A...........honestly though i dont think itll be long before he gets back in but hopefully this will challenge him

[Sarah]

I was kind of hoping they'd bench him and give Cam Janssen a shot in the interim before Pandolfo reached 100%, because I do think he needs that night or two watching to give him a little kick-start and get him playing well again. But no dice. We'll see though. I think Rupp definitely deserves the spot over him at this point, so things will be interesting, for sure.

[Bill]

How about Rupp centering that fourth line with Sarge and JANSSEN on the wings? C'mon Sutter, make it happen!

[Devilswede]

I missed the game last night. Anyone have a clip/link to this Sutter - Langenbrunner confrontation? Thanks!

[Pat D]

That's pretty cool how the media can help to keep the mood good on the team.

[matt]

i'd like to see Janssen in there too.. but heck ASHAM IS FINALLY SCRATCHED! FINALLY! AT LAST!
And i'm so relieved that Sutter kept those lines together. They should have never been split apart. ZZPop is a good line.. but the current lines leave Zub-Zac-Langs just as good as they were with Parise, and give Elias more energy to feed on the top line. GOOD GOOD!
Pandolfo-Madden-Clarkson is golden too. So pumped.

[jules]

So Langenbrunner argues even when he knows he wrong?

Just what you'd expect from a man.

[JJ]

Janssen is fun to watch play but his 5-6 minutes/night is not what the team needs right now. Let Rupp, Brylin & Pelley be the 4th line and give them more minutes since you can depend on them defensively as much as any line other than Madden's. We also can't expect Pando to be effective playing 16-18 minutes off the bat so it'll be good to have a 2nd checking line.

[SonicDude]

Huge game tonight. Down 2 pts to Broad Street jerks and jerks have 1 in hand.

Hopefully Sutter will stick with the current lines, and key forwards can keep their momentum in the process. Hard play of last 2 games hopefully is here to stay. Maybe Pando back.

Then all Lou has to do is land and sign Boyle and then a stay-at-home and then a sniper.

Ah, to dream.

[Mike]

I'm not so sure they Devils need a sniper, but more so a playmaker since they haven't replaced Gomez's passing from last year. I think that's why Gionta and Elias have had off years. Elias still likes to shoot first, and Gionta isn't much of a playmaker.

Boyle would be a great pickup, but it would cost a lot, and he seems determined to get $7M a year as a free agent. Brian Campbell or John Michael-Liles would be good pickups as well

I agree also about another stay-at-home D-man, I think Barret Jackman (StL) would be a great pickup for the team, to play with either Martin or the offensive d-man that Lou picks up. Barret won't provide any offense, but is very good defensively, strong leader, and hard shot from the point, plus a big hitter. Only knock on him is he is kind of injury prone.

[Mike]

I'm not so sure they Devils need a sniper, but more so a playmaker since they haven't replaced Gomez's passing from last year. I think that's why Gionta and Elias have had off years. Elias still likes to shoot first, and Gionta isn't much of a playmaker.

Boyle would be a great pickup, but it would cost a lot, and he seems determined to get $7M a year as a free agent. Brian Campbell or John Michael-Liles would be good pickups as well

I agree also about another stay-at-home D-man, I think Barret Jackman (StL) would be a great pickup for the team, to play with either Martin or the offensive d-man that Lou picks up. Barret won't provide any offense, but is very good defensively, strong leader, and hard shot from the point, plus a big hitter. Only knock on him is he is kind of injury prone.

[Jeff]

Jumping for Joy the Asham may finally get the benching he deserves!! Talk about the invisible man out there.

[Devs4Life]

i wish they would let cam play...