Salvador will play; Sutter still mum on Zubrus-Jagr match

Defenseman Bryce Salvador will return to the Devils' lineup for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Rangers on Wednesday night after missing the last 10 games of the regular season with a left foot contusion.

Salvador participated in this afternoon's practice at Prudential Center and was paired with Andy Greene.

"Bryce will play," Devils coach Brent Sutter said simply.

Vitaly Vishnevski will come out of the lineup to make room for Salvador, who hasn't played since being struck in the left foot with a shot from Colorado's John-Michael Liles on March 15.

Salvador said he "feels great", but knows that returning for Game 1 of the playoffs will be a big jump."

"The playoffs, it's a completely different level," Salvador said. "Everybody brings their game up to the next level, energy, excitement. It's going to be one step quicker out there."

WILL IT BE ZUBES?

Sutter still wouldn't say if he intends to match Dainius Zubrus against Jaromir Jagr, as he did the last three times the teams met in the regular season. "We'll see," Sutter said.

Zubrus knows it would be a difficult challenge. "He's a big, strong guy who is very skilled," Zubrus said. "As skilled as he is, with his size  (6-foot-3, 240 pounds), he knows how to use it very well. If he has a hafl a step on you, he'll use that big frame to put it infront of you and there's not so much you can do, especially with the rules right now."

Zubrus went head to head with Jagr in the second round of last season's playoffs while he was playing for Buffalo and was instrumental in the Sabres' six-game triumph in that series. Zubrus was unaware that some Rangers felt he tried to take out Jagr's knee in one of the games - something that was reported elsewhere earlier this week.

"This is the first time I've heard about it," Zubrus said. "I remember one hit maybe and I wasn't going for his knee. Maybe he felt I did, but there was never a story behind it."

ASHAM'S NEW DO

Arron Asham was sporting a new mohawk for today's practice in honor of the start of the playoffs. "I had it all of last season," Asham explained. "I can't grow facial hair, so I decided to go with this instead."

MOVIE CLUB

Martin Brodeur said the group had not decided yet what movie it was going to watch, but it looked like it would be "Vantage Point" with Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox. Brodeur said he wanted to see "Leatherheads", but Jay Pandolfo has already seen it.

Asham said he and John Madden might join the group.

TODAY'S LINE COMBOS AND D-PAIRINGS

Forwards: Parise-Elias-Langenbrunner; Pandolfo-Madden-Gionta; Zubrus-Rupp-Clarkson; Brylin-Zajac-Asham; Pelley-Tallackson

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

Comments

[Kat]

TG great work as always. Did you hear about Zach and the Yankees game? Did he say anything about it?

[TG]

Yes, he went to the game yesterday. That's about all he said.

[Pat D'Amico]

TG I was wondering if you could send a request from a fan to Clarkson and ask him to grow a playoff mustache? I think it would be amazing and I would be very grateful.

[bf]

hey everybody hear that their gonna do the fanfest from 4pm until game time every home game. It will be like opening day again, good luck getting in.

[Adam]

LOL at pat. Quite a strange thing to ask... -coughs-

Anyway. I'm psyched for this. TSN is broadcasting every Devil/Ranger game, so I actually get to WATCH hockey. It's going to be great.

Glad Salvy's back. He'll be very important. Vish should replace Greene though... we need aggressiveness to win a playoff series... not a man that fumbles mistakes.

[jdr30]

Is sutter kidding? Benching Vish for Salvadore? Has to be one of the worst moves of the season.

[DP]

ASH WITH A HAWK!!!!!!!!!! SICK NASTY and great news that sal is back

[BigDwins]

Honestly if Sutter sits Vish and we lose the series, Sutter needs to go. I can't possibly imagine why he likes to sit Vish, he's our #1 physical defensemen. And not only sit him, but sit him for a rusty Salvador who's played like 3 games all season for us. Give Vish a break already Brent, he's worked hard all season and has been SOLID!

[Xander Crews]

Lol so now people are finally off the Greene bandwagon? About time if you ask me.

[Mike]

Vishnevski can throw his body around but thats about it. He doesn't move the puck well, and thats probably part of the reason that Green gets a start and Vish sits. Green gets a lot of power play time, hes pretty good in the offensive zone. I like the Zubrus-Jagr matchup. He was great against him Sunday, its a shame the no call on that high sticking to Zubrus led directly to a goal. Way to go Asham rocking the mohawk!

[TG]

I suspect at least part of the reasoning for Vishnevski sitting for Salvador is that they both play the left side. The Devils were going to try shifting Salvador to the right side, but it took so long for him to recover, he didn't get to do it during the regular season and it's probably not something you want to experiment with for Game 1 of the playoffs.

[TG]

And, I should point out that Asham didn't shave the sides of his head completely. He still has hair there, but its very short. Whether Lou Lamoriello approves (he's very strict about hair) remains to be seen.

[Steve Lepore]

The Devils don't allow playoff beards at all?

[jules]

I think Tom is right. It's too bad since I think that Vish has played well against the Rags. However, Greene might be able to help our anemic PP. Maybe Sal could replace Mottau on the PK, too.

[mike]

When did this no beard rule happen? I remember Madden had one I think during the last cup in those great photos with his black eyes.
Also, I second the Clarkson-stache thing. That would look epic.

[dave]

I don't think he means that they are not allowed to grow facial hair but Asham himself can't grow a beard. Every year the Devils grow their playoff beards. And the one year they went crazy and shaved part of their beards when they were losing during one series, Gomez and i think White had some pretty weird facial hair setups.

[stoonbora]

Personally I think the best playoff beard in the entire NHL is Niedermayer's. His is always enormous by the end of the playoffs.

[Sal from Garfield]

Lou strict about hair... because he lacks it himself? :]

What hotel are they staying at this year?

Sutter is doing the right thing by not disclosing who's covering JAGRL. Why give the opposition more knowledge?

Damnit, I am so tempted to skip class tomorrow night.

[Evans]

sal if i were sutter i would purposely disclose wrong information, so therangers waste time preparing for the wrong thing.

[TG]

I never said the Devils don't allow playoff beards. Asham said he cut his hair because he's not physically capable of growing facial hair.

I guess that was a bit confusing.

Some guys already have some good whiskers going.

[Sal from Garfield]

OK, this question isn't for TG, so maybe somebody else can answer it for me.

Does this site have an RSS feed??

[Evans]

sal

http://njmg.typepad.com/devilsblog/index.rdf

[TG]

I failed to mention earlier that I have a segment on the most recent podcast on northjersey.com. It was taped this afternoon, so if it hasn't been posted yet, it will be soon.

[Brodeur30]

I can't wait for this to start tomorrow night!!! Find a way devs...Let's get those timely goals we've been lacking throughout the year. Brodeur will be great, we know this...Scoring the first goal in this series is going to be huge. With how tight checking both teams are and the quality of goaltending, having a one goal lead is big.

GO DEVS GOOOOOO

[Sally]

I bet Pando has grown a pretty good beard since Sunday.

Too bad we really won't have much of a chance to see Asham's fauxhawk. He seems to be well liked in the locker room but I haven't heard anything to support this idea. It could just be my take on his tradition of being the last guy off the ice.