Fire & Ice

Record-breaking shutout

I guess you could have seen this one coming. It was a wasted opportunity and not much of an effort from the Devils tonight in their 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals at Prudential Center.

The Devils took just 18 shots on goal and just two in the third period, giving Cristobal Huet an easy night in his first start as a Capital. It was the eighth time the Devils have been shut out this season, breaking the team record of seven established in 1983-84 and tied in 2001-02.

It was the Devils’ first lost in regulation in 10 games (7-1-2), but they’ve been building toward this one for three games. Martin Brodeur stole a 2-1 overtime win in Washington on Sunday and the Devils managed a point in their 2-1 overtime loss in Carolina on Tuesday despite being outplayed for the last two periods of regulation and overtime.

“It’s actually a reflection of the last two games we played on the road,” said Devils coach Brent Sutter, who held a brief closed-door locker room meeting after the game. “We haven’t played with any consistency. It reflects on the offense. We haven’t scored very many goals the past few games because we’re not playing with any intelligence. When you’re not involved like you need to be in involved in games, that’s what happens. You’re not thinking the game the right way. We lost a lot of battles tonight.”

Awaiting Salvador's debut

There were no surprises this morning. Sheldon Brookbank, Vitaly Vishnevksi and Karel Rachunek, who will all be healthy scratches for tonight's game against Washington, took the ice with backup goaltender Kevin Weekes.

The only lineup change tonight will be Bryce Salvador making his Devils' debut, taking Brookbank's spot in the lineup.

Devils coach Brent Sutter hopes his team can get back on track after sloppy efforts in the last two games. The Devils had been playing pretty well in all three zones for all three periods in the four games before that.

"We kind of got away from that the last two games where we weren't as consistent as we would like to be for 60 minutes and we want to get back to that, too," Sutter said this morning. "But, good teams find ways to win games. We were able to get three out of four points even though we didn't play that well."

Greene gets another chance

Andy Greene will be in the lineup Friday night against Washington after all. Although Devils coach Brent Sutter criticized Greene for making "soft" plays on both Carolina goals in Tuesday's 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes, he said the rookie defenseman will play against the Capitals and be paired with newcomer Bryce Salvador. That means Sheldon Brookbank will be the odd man out.

Salvador and Greene were paired together for most of today's 45-minute practice. Sheldon Brookbank also got a little time with Salvador, who participated in his first practice as a Devil. But Sutter said Greene will get the first shot at playing with Salvador.

"For Bryce it's more just getting use to some things that we do and being around the guys," Sutter said. "We have an idea of the type of defenseman he is. Our pro scouts have seen him quite a lot, so we have a good feel for him. We'll start a certain way, but that doesn't mean that's what it will end up as at the end of the night."

Salvador looking forward to getting started

Although Bryce Salvador said it was difficult to say goodbye to the only organization he's every played for, the newest Devil is also thrilled to have a chance to play for a team that is leading the Eastern Conference and headed to the playoffs.

"It was tough leaving, but on the other hand, I'm really excited to come to the Devils," the 32-year-old defenseman said in a conference call this morning. "You look at their roster and they have a lot of players who have come through their system like I did and that's important to me."

Salvador played 11 seasons in the Blues organization, seven in the NHL, before he was traded to the Devils on Tuesday morning for enforcer Cam Janssen. He didn't arrive in his hotel in New Jersey until after 10 p.m onTuesday. He underwent his physical this morning and met with general manager Lou Lamoriello. Salvador won't get a chance to practice with his new teammates until Thursday because the Devils have today off following three games in four days.

Greene's bad night

Well, rookie defenseman Andy Greene quickly emerged tonight as the leading candidate to sit out when Bryce Salvador makes his Devils’ debut Friday night against Washington.

Devils coach Brent Sutter essentially blamed Greene for both goals scored by Sergei Samsonov tonight in Carolina’s 2-1 overtime victory, including the game-winner 1:36 into overtime.

On the winning goal, Greene let Samsonov slip past him to put in his own rebound.

“He was coming down the boards real fast and the puck kind of squirted out there and I thought it was going to be going more towards the corner and it just stopped in front and he got his stick on it and made a good play and I didn’t have a stick there,” he said.

Sutter saw it a little differently.

“Greene let his guy go and was too soft on him,” Sutter said. “He was too soft on the first goal too around the net. Hey, we have nine defensemen here. When you play like that, it’s tough to stay in the lineup.”

Beware of fake trade (updated a third time)

To clarify, the only trade the Devils made today was acquiring Bryce Salvador from St. Louis for Cam Janssen. Someone posted a comment under my username claiming a late trade had come through of Brian Gionta for Martin Havlat. That was a sad joke by some idiot who thinks it's funny to fool the readers on this site.

I hope no one was tricked by this. I might have to figure out a different way to post my comments and answers to your questions from now on. It's too bad that one moron has to try to ruin it for everyone.

Update 1: Upon further investigation the fake TG posting was made from the same IP address as the person posting under the name SC. I'm going to look into it further and see if i can come up with a name.

Update 2: I have retrieved the real e-mail address of the person who posted the fake comment under my name and asked them not to do it again. If he/she does something like this again, I will post his/her e-mail address and I'll let the readers take care of it.

Update 3: Below is the apology from the imposter I received in an e-mail tonight. I'm not sure he/she would have apologized if I hadn't tracked down his/her e-mail address and sent him/her a note, but I'll accept the apology and take it that it will never happen again. From now on, I think as a policy I will just post the person's e-mail address if anyone posts a comment under my username again.

"I apologize , it was just a stupid joke after all the comments people were making about the deadline, thought people would know it was fake right away, when would you ever post something like that in the comments? I did not think it would get a reaction like this. It won't happen again."

The Newark Nine

How will Devils coach Brent Sutter handle carrying nine defensemen on his roster?

"We'll go with three pairs of three," he joked.

All kidding aside, Sutter said he was concentrating on tonight's game against the Hurricanes before figuring out where Bryce Salvador fits in. There's no question he'll be in the top six, though.

"That will be determined," Sutter said. "We were able to acquire a real good, steady guy. That has some size and that's important."

Nine is better than eight

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello finds himself stuck with nine defensemen after acquiring Bryce Salvador from St. Louis this morning for enforcer Cam Janssen.  Lamoriello admitted on a conference call that he tried to move one of his defenseman after competing the deal for Salvador this morning, "and we weren't able to do that."

He said the team will carry nine defensemen for now. "We'll make some decisions on whether we do or we don't (keep nine)," he said. "At this point, we have nine and that's the decision."

That's it for now. I'll have more after I get to the arena and talk to the coach.

Janssen: 'It's tough leaving'

Although St. Louis would have been the once city Cam Janssen would have picked to be traded to, he was disappointed to learn this morning that he was leaving the Devils.

"I'm excited to go home, but I would have been very excited to play in Carolina (for the Devils tonight) too," Janssen, a St. Louis native, said via cell phone while in a limo on the way to the airport. "I want to play. I loved the New Jersey Devils organization. I loved everybody in it. I was devastated when I heard (about the trade). But there's a place for me in St. Louis and Lou had to do what he had to do. They got a great defenseman (Bryce Salvador) in the deal who is going to help them a lot. They're going to be a tough team to beat in the playoffs."

Devils acquire Salvador for Janssen

As you all know already, the Devils acquired defenseman Bryce Salvador from the St. Louis Blues for right wing Cam Janssen. No word yet on whether Salvador will be able to make it to Raleigh, N.C. in time for tonight's game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

As reported on Sunday by The Record, the Devils had a scout in St. Louis last week watching Salvador and Barret Jackman, who re-signed with the Blues on Monday night.

Salvador, 32, is in his seventh NHL season and had one goal, 10 assists, 43 penalty minutes and team-best plus-12 defensive rating and averaged 19:38 in ice time in 56 games with the Blues this season. At 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, he has good size and is a pretty good skater, too.

"In Bryce Salvador, we have acquired a veteran NHL defenseman with good size and strength who plays a physical game," Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said in a press release. "We look forward to the depth Bryce will bring to our roster."

Salvador obviously doesn't fill the Devils' need for a power-play point man, but they have nine defensemen now, so they're likely to trade a defenseman before today's 3 p.m. trade deadline.