Salvador may have had head injury

Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador skated on his own this morning, but won't play in tonight's game against Pittsburgh or in Saturday night's game against the Rangers.

The Devils are still calling Salvador's injury an upper body injury. It appears, however, that it was delayed effects of the slap shot he took in the left cheek from Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski with 2:13 left in a 4-1 Devils' win on Dec. 10.

"I'm sure it has something to do with when he got hit in the head," defenseman Paul Martin said this morning. "He said he wasn't feeling well."

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said that was just speculation on Martin's part, but still would not discuss the exact nature of Salvador's injury. 

Unfortunately, Salvador left before I got a chance to talk to him this morning. Martin said Salvador was "feeling better" today.

When I asked if Salvador was frustrated that it has taken so much time to feel better, Martin said, "I think it so, but, at the same time, because of what it is, you have to be patient with it. If he's feeling worse the more activity he does, then I'm assuming you have to tone it down." 

Salvador initially did not miss any games. He played only two nights after he was hit in the face and played four games in all. The first sign that there was something wrong was when he missed the third period of the Devils 5-3 win in Buffalo on Dec. 17. That was one week after he was struck in the face.

He has not played since.

Lamoriello said Salvador skated at least once before today, but wouldn't say how many times.

Devils coach Brent Sutter said this morning that Salvador will skate again Saturday morning and that he's hoping he''ll be ready to join the team for the trip to St. Louis on Tuesday and Dallas on Wednesday.

"I think maybe tomorrow he'll be able to get out (on the ice) with the coaches," Sutter said. "He won't play tomorrow night. I'm hoping, but you never know, unless there's a setback, I'm expecting him perhaps to go to St. Louis and Dallas. We'll see how it goes. But these next three or four days will be good for him conditioning-wise."

***

Brian Rolston said he was OK, but his jaw was still sore this morning from being hit with a puck John Madden accidentally fired into the Devils' bench in the third period of Tuesday's 2-0 loss to Boston.

"It's sore, but it's OK," Rolston said. "The swelling has gone down."

Rolston had a pretty good lump on the right side of his jaw after Tuesday's game, but that was gone this morning. Roslton also needed a few stitches to close a cut. He did not know how many.

Comments

[HF]

TG-are the power play lines the same? Have you asked sutter whether he's considered to make adjustments to both units considering they are not working?

[DP]

i dont think its the players on the PP its the setup

[Tom Gulitti]

They did not do anything with the power play this morning.

Sutter talked again this morning about how good the special teams have been "in the last 12, 13 games", so I wouldn't expect any changes on the PP -- at least to start tonight's game.

I don't know if you could say the PP combos are not working, though. The PP wasn't good against Boston (0-for-3), but before that they had scored at least one power-play goal in four consecutive games -- a stretch in which they went 6-for-16 on it (the game before that they had no power-play chances in the 4-2 loss to Buffalo).

[Salvatore from Garfield]

@ HF-

Our power play didn't work this past game against the bruins. Besides that, it has succeeded in the past several games (if I'm not mistaken).

[mikeschoenf]

Hope Salv can be ready to play is former teamates in STL. Wish we had him for tonight and tommorrow but hopefully we can win without him. I know TG mentioned the TSN rankings last week but check out this link. Parise is ranked as the 3rd best player in the NHL and Elias is there at 8 and Gionta is the 13th best winger.. interesting stuff
http://www.tsn.ca/fantasy_news/feature/?ID=10467

[HF]

I believe Rolston has to play the point on the first unit, isnt that why they signed him to be the qb? I think the second unit w/clarkson is terrible. I dont believe theyve scored any goals from that unit. I would have Holik center/in front of net, zubrus along the wall, Gio roaming the slot and weakside, with Greene and Langenbrunner at the points--The first unit should have Martin-Rolston at the points and the Zajac-parise-elias line.

[DP]

and for the record rolston was one of the better devils against boston imo so hopefully he is starting to get it back

[SonicDude]

I bet Paul Martin was taken out to Belichick's, I mean Lou's woodshed for speculating on Bryce's injury. What nerve.

I didn't track post-game posts, but is anyone bothered by Madden's inability to keep the puck on the ice and away from Rolston's head? I thought he had time to ice the puck.

Every game that goes by, Clemmer looks better and better.

[mikeschoenf]

madden looks non-existant this year.. never thought I would say that.

[Rich]

"I'm sure it has something to do with when he got hit in the head," defenseman Paul Martin said this morning. "He said he wasn't feeling well."

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello said that was just speciulation on Martin's part, but still would not discuss the exact nature of Salvador's injury.

LoL, Martin will be the next one told not to talk to the press before games, just like Clemmer....

[Josh]

I wouldn't say that Rolston was brought in to be our PP Quarterback. In fact, that's not the role that he plays on the power play. A quarterback is more like a Brian Campbell, a guy who can draw pressure and distribute, whether a shot or a pass to a now-open player. Rolston would, in an ideal world, be the guy getting the pass, so that he can unleash that cannon of his. At the start of the season, that's what Sutter wanted Mottau to be able to do, but it didn't really work out, and after a few games, Rollie got hurt. But yes, his slapper is definitely a good asset to have on our power play.

Hopefully Sal starts to feel better. We really could have used him against Boston, although I thought we played them well.

[mikeschoenf]

wow. i could only imagine what martins punishment will be!

[DevilsCapsGal]

A bit OT, and not to pour salt in the wounds of Rags fans, but did you see that Caps/Rags game on Tuesday night? And since then the Rags fans have been brutal on the team, esp Gomez and Drury and on the coaches! Let's keep it going tomorrow night in NYC!

[mikeschoenf]

Do the rangers have a blog like this? There isnt much activity on Ranger Rants.. I would like to read what the fans are saying about their team.

[JJ]

The Blueskirts are over-rated. Gomez & Drury are having a bad year, Redden is soft and Kalinin just flat out sucks (ha ha great signings Sather). The only player who is earning his $$$ this year is Lundqvist and just like last year he's bound to hit a rough patch pretty soon.

[Per]

Mike, go to
http://rangers.lohudblogs.com/

To be fair, the Rangers fans are extremely tough on their own team...

[Speedz]

Still though, The Rangers are going to be ridiculously hungry tommorow. Especially after the loss to the Devils and the Caps. The Devils have to beat the Penguins tonight, and the Penguins are hungry,

Theres no way the devils can have a favorable situation.
We Either win tongiht, become over confident and lose tommorow to the starved-rags, lose tonight, have no confidence tommorow, and lose to the Rags.

I really wish I could be more optimistic, btu these are two hungry competitive teams the Devils are forced to play back to back. Who makes the schedule for the Devils? honestly. Probally a Flyers fan