Holik to make return in Montreal; Clemmensen looks like starter again

Center Bobby Holik will return to the Devils' lineup Saturday night in Montreal after missing seven weeks with a broken right pinky.

"Bobby will play tommorow -- unless something comes up tomorrow," Devils coach Brent Sutter said.

Like, Brian Rolston, who made his return from a high right ankle sprain in Philadelphia on Thursday night, Holik missed 18 games. He was injured on Oct. 18 in Washington.

"I know one thing: I've got to keep it simple and hope for the best," he said. "I prepaed the best I could and keep it simple, be focused and hope for the best."

The Devils have been playing pretty well of late, winning six of their last seven games, and Holik knows he needs to find a way to fit in without disrupting the good chemistry the team has developed while he was out.

"You have to be ready to jump on the train that everyone is riding on without expecting the train to slow down for you," he said.

***
Mike Rupp will likely be the odd man out of the lineup because of Holik's return.

"If you look at it today (Rupp will be out)," Sutter said. "We'll make that decision tomorrow."

With the Devils finally getting healthier, players who were playing will have to sit out.

"That's the way it goes when healthy bodies start coming back," Sutter said. "Guys get back into roles they have to play and we expect guys to play that roles and they should expect it to."

Although Sutter later said that he wasn't saying that Rupp wasn't playing well, he has talked in the past about Rupp needing to play his role when he's not playing physical.

Sutter said that sentimentality had nothing to do the decision to sit Rupp and play rookie left wing Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond in Montreal. Leblond is from Levis, Quebec and this would be his first game at Bell Centre.

"This has nothing to do with that," Sutter said. "It has to do with Pierre knows his role. We have no problems playing him. He's responsible defensively and he knows what he has to do. Last night, he banged bodies around. He was involved in the game physically when he got on the ice. This is not because anybody is unhappy with Ruppy. It's just that (David Clarkson) is not coming out of the lineup, Bobby is going in and Pierre is going to play the left side."

Leblond was trying not to get too excited about playing in Montreal.

"It looks like it," he said. "We'll see tomorrow. I don't want to get too excited before I know."

Leblond said he not only has never played a game at Bell Centre, but he also never attended a game or any event in the arena.

"I've never been in that building before," he said. "Coming there, I'll have a chance to see my family. They all live like two hours away and my brother (Jonathan) lives in Montreal. I'm going to see them tonight. It's great. I haven't seen them in a while, since my first game here (his NHL debut against Dallas on Oct. 22)."

Leblond said he has been able to scrape together 12 tickets for Saturday's game so far.

I asked if that was going to be enough, he said, "I hope."

***
Sutter declined again to name his starting goaltender for Saturday, but it's evident that Scott Clemmensen will get the call again. Clemmensen was the first goalteder off the ice at the end of practice today and that has been an 100 percent accurate indicator of which goaltender will play since Martin Brodeur was injured on Nov. 1.

The last time someone other than Brodeur started in net for the Devils in a game in Montreal was Feb. 1, 1997, when then coach Jacques Lemaire decided to teach Brodeur a lesson and started Mike Dunham instead in a game that ended in a 4-4 tie.

Clemmensen admitted it would mean something to play in Montreal for the first in his career.

"If I would play tomorrow, it would be fun," Clemmensen said.

This will be five consecutive starts for Clemmensen and eigth of the last nine games. Although Sutter won't declare Clemmensen the No. 1 in Martin Broduer's absence, he even took over Brodeur's equoipment stall in the practice locker room.

Brodeur's equipment had been hanging in his stall since he was injured, but today it was gone and Clemmensen's stuff was there.

"That's something new," Clemmensen admitted.

Clemmensen said he moved out of the hotel and into his apartment with wife, Vanessa, and six-month-old daughter, Olivia, on Monday and Tuesday.

"Olivia six months old and this is her sixth place," Clemmensen said.

***
The stomach flu that weakened Dainius Zubrus last week in Pittsburgh hit Clemmensen on Sunday, but he was over it by Monday.

Comments

[SonicDude]

jj

saw your line combos from before. hold onto your hat...i agree. your point about putting rolston on line 1 is mandatory though. $5M+ 30 goal scorer = 1st line.

i think we all struggle with sutter's line changing, but i think its interesting how the minutes are being doled out very well. last night approxs: martin at 24, bryce 22, oduya 21, travis line 20+, zubes line 18-20s...very nice. white @ 20+ is a bit high tho but hopefully that changes w/greene.

or we can simply trade elias for bouwmeester (just kidding)

[embo slice]

sing it with me...."All we are saying, is give Weekes a chance"

[blue-eyed devil]

I was at the game when Bobby went down; I'll be at the game he makes his return!

Great news!

[Sarah]

haha nice one emboslice. I 100% agree.

[njteech]

Clemmer deserves the start....he has been very steady. Welcome back Bobby....thanks TG for the info

[Per]

Hahaha...embo, great line. Clemmensen was pretty solid though against Philly. Watching Montreal put six behind a very GOOD Lundquist last night I'm a little scared whoever it will be on Saturday...

[Merms]

Weekes got his chance, Clemmensen has outplayed him in just about every game. I hope Holik plays well tomorrow.

[JJ]

@Sonic - I could only watch parts of the game last night with the sound off and just got done watching the replay now (I love my job) and was cracking up when Chico was talking about how the days of the straight up "checking" line are probably over, meaning you have got to forecheck not just play D & give the puck back and repeat. It's been thrown around how the Maddolfo thing isn't working anymore (note they only had 12 min ice last night including PK so Sutter must be seeing the same thing). That and the fact that the Pandolfo-Rupp-Clarkson line worked well when Doggie was down. I'd just like to see a third balanced line and the only one I could come up with was Madden-Holik-Rolston. A little size, a little defense & speed & a little scoring touch. Despite how much so many of you guys hate him, Langenbrunner is playing well with Zach & Travis so I wouldn't be so quick to break that one up. But agreed, you have to find more time for Rolston somehow and I'm hesitant to break up those two top lines the way they are playing right now so that's the only thing I could come up with.

[Tom Gulitti]

Actually, Madden played 16:39 last night and Pandolfo played 16:08. That's down less than two minutes for Madden from his season average (18:19) and a little more than minute for Pandolfo (17:20).

Not a huge deal, especially when you consider that Madden was playing his first game back from an injury. But Sutter has said he wants to play top lines against top lines and we saw that again last night.

[frankied]

Wow about that stat about 1997.... that is a long time. Funny about Lemaire "teaching Brodeur a lesson".

[Mike in Idaho]

I think the ZZ part of ZZ Pops plays well despite Langenbrunner. They scored 1 goal last night and Langenbrunner's contribution was getting pushed on top of Biron. He still misses a lot of shots, that's why I don't like him, he should be a third line player at best.

[Jack]

Clemmer needs to be focused in montreal. He seemed a bit alluuf in Pittsburgh.

[JJ]

Thanks for the correction TG, I must've been looking at the TOI through the 2nd per. My mistake.

[Iceman]

Weekes has had plenty of chances, and he has played well. However, Clemmensen is really starting to prove himself, so why should he stop playing? I think his positioning has really improved, and he hasn't really played a bad game yet.

[Per]

Just heard Avery got suspended and will get an "anger management evaluation", haha...what a circus. Like he is angry and out of control when doing his stuff. He knows very well what he is doing and saying. And the Stars are now total saints saying "oh, Avery is making Dallas Stars look bad". Sorry, but that is bullcrap: what did Dallas sign him for? Being a brilliant, sportsmanlike player? Now they are SOO upset Avery is being Avery. Pathetic.

[Puckster]

Clemmer deserves to start for now. That may change, but right now he's earned the games he's getting.

[brule2000]

Langs isn't as bad as we're making out. Is he being singled out because of the "C"? Patty was getting the same 18 months ago.

Been waiting for someone to stand up for him. He's been OK. He leads, I don't care what anyone says. That's why he's captain. Some times it rebounds on him, but his teammates see it, and I think they respond.

[SonicDude]

@jj

well thought out lines. and yes, jamie did play well last night from the parts of game i saw. now if we can only get lou and sutter to listen to you and ditti, we'd be all set.

@puckster

clemmer does deserve the time. but weekes has gotten so little time in his 2 years here that you need to drop him in there. going w the hot hand too much runs the risk of making the backup rusty, and what if clemmer gets hurt? i think that's the only thing people are saying.

[jdr30]

Keeping Rupp out of lineup = BAD move. Over Lebond? Give me a break Sutter

[mikeschoenf]

sonic dude.. I responded to your post in the Stevens Vs. Leetch post. I am sorry about the Kovi for MM and Greene comment that I thought somebody mentioned or something. Im interested to hear your reaction to why I get frustated after reading most of your comments....

[Kevin]

Yeah, I don't see how replacing Rupp with a one demensional, sorry skating, offesiveless goon. No offense but this hopefully is just a one day thing. Let LLL play in Montreal, get the point across to Rupp and insert him in against the Rags. NO WAY Rupp is the inferior player of the two and he's putting pucks in the net. Seems odd but hopefully Sutter is being as honest as Lou in saying it has nothing to do with playing the kid in Montreal.

[Salvatore from Garfield]

What was that about lemaire teaching brodeur a lesson? I don't remember this...

[Pearl Jammed]

I appreciate the pop from a fellow crazy fanatic Sonic!

[Pearl Jammed]

I also don't remember Jaques teaching Marty a lesson either.... oh well

[Pearl Jammed]

" All we arrrrrrreee SAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYINNNNNNNNGGGG is give Weekes a chance!"