X-rays on Rolston's ankle negative; He won't play in DC

I just spoke to Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello and he said right wing Brian Rolston did have an X-ray on his right ankle Thursday night in Atlanta and it was negative, meaning there's no fracture. Rolston suffered a high-ankle sprain in the third period of Thursday night's 1-0 win over the Thrashers when he lost an edge and crashed into the boards.

"The X-rays were negative, so we're just going to wait and see," Lamoriello said today before the team's practice at Verizon Center.

Rolston is headed back to New Jersey today to be examined by team doctors and will not play in Saturday night's game in Washington. Lamoriello would not estimate how much time Rolston will miss.

"I don't even want to guess," Lamoriello said. "He's going back to New Jersey today and it's just time. You can't tell anything for 24 to 48 hours."

Last season, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby missed 29 total games with a high-ankle sprain. He missed 21 games initially, returned for three games and then missed eight more. The total time of recovery (including the three games he played) was almost two months.

Lamoriello said he has no plans to call anyone up from Lowell at this time.

Comments

[Jeff O.]

i saw on NHL.com that Rolston was only crutches as a precaution. TG, is it possible that Rolston is only day-to-day, or is it going to be more?

[David B.]

That's very good news. Here's to hoping that Brian has a quick recovery.

[Jeff O.]

never mind that comment. i didn't see the part where Lou wouldn't estimate time that Rolston would miss.

[TG]

I don't know how NHL.com would know that the crutches were just a precaution. He had protective boot on his foot that went almost up to his knee.

[Iceman]

Thank god nothing was broken or anything, we need Rolston and his cannon of a shot back asap!

[Zavior]

The Devils know more than they are leading on too, Lou always makes it sound like it was no big deal with it comes in injuries.
If he traveled with the team to DC and then the team decided to have him return to Jersey to get examined by team doctors, that tells me that although there might be no broken bones, there is a significant injury and that he may miss atleast 5-10 games.

I think Parise went into the boards harder after scoring the OT goal in Pittsburgh, than Rolston did last night. I guess that is the difference between a young kid and an older veteran, more injury prone. I hope Rolston gets better soon as now we are pretty much the same exact team we were last season, Greene in the lineup and Holik replacing Pelley.

[DevilfanFLA]

high ankle sprains can be problematic...in some cases a small fracture could be better news, although it's a case by case.
Let's hope Brian is a fast healer.

[Hoosier]

Zavior: Crosby was 20 years old and didn't go into the boards very hard at all.

[johnny]

think he was referring to parise. At any rate, like rolston said, he went into the boards funny which is how u get hurt. Parise went into the boards and was able to prepare for the impact and position his body to take it better than rolston was able to..

[Hoosier]

What I meant was I don't think age had anything to do with being injured vs. not being injured. Like you said, it's a matter of how well the player can position himself for impact.

[Kelly]

No one will know how long he'll be out until he laces up the skates and makes cuts and stops without pain. He's gonna have to go through some PT before he can do that though. It could be a few weeks to 3 months before he's back out there (i.e. Crosby). Physics is a b***h but at least we can all be grateful it wasn't more serious.

[Brodeur30]

Parise definitely went into the boards hard, but that's because that hack orpik hit him well after the goal had been scored...

[Zavior]

I doubt Parise was able to prepare himself becuase aside from his own speed, as Brodeur30 said, Orpik hit him from behind sending him back first into the boards. After the game, Parise said the adrenaline may have helped deal with the pain at the moment but that his leg and back were hurting him afterwards.

Most younger players are usually able to deal with the pain but older players tend to be more caution (rightfully so...) Parise has many more years of hockey to play (god willing) Rolston has been playing for 16 season I think. Either way it's just bad to see Rolston go out like that and the fact that he may be out of the lineup for a couple of months if it is something like what happen to Crosby and Fluery (both of who are young and healed up remarkably fast). From what I read/heard Rolston keeps himself in great shape so hopefully he can recover from this soon.

It will be good to see what Vrana can do now that a opportunity has presented itself to him. Don't expect a hat trick but hopefully he can develop some chemisty with Elias and Zubrus as he may be playing with them for atleast a couple of weeks.

[TG]

Vrana may be playing with Elias and Zubrus for a couple of weeks or, given the way Brent Sutter shuffles his lines, it could last two periods.

[Zavior]

TG, I agree. Sutter is trigger happy with his line changes.
Gone are the days when fans can come up with names for lines, no 3 forwards stay together for more than a month since Sutter arrived.

Hey TG, have you ever asked Gionta what he tought was the reason his goal production has gone down since the season he played under Julien/Lou, aside from not having Gomez, Rafalski. I wonder if he find Sutter's style of change lines often a distraction...

[kstatik]

Does anyone else remember when Weeksie's surgery was "no big deal"... "just a bruise", etc?

When Lou says someone has a mosquito bite, it's because they have leprosy. Or cancer!

As much as I like Lou, I hate his practice of trying to make things sound better than they are.