Today's practice underway; Leach wearing No. 28

Practice is underway and all the players are present.

Brian Rolston is skating again on the fourth line with Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Mike Rupp. Bobby Holik is centering the fifth line with Barry Tallackson and Sheldon Brookbank, who is skating at forward again today after going back to defense the last two days.

All of the other line combinations are the same.

Defenseman Jay Leach, who was called up earlier today, is paired with Mike Mottau.

There are no signs yet as to which goaltender will start Thursday in Philadelphia.

They are practicing the power play right now. They have five forwards on the first unit: Rolston and Jamie Langenbrunner at the points with Zach Parise, Travis Zajac and Patrik Elias up front. The second unit has Johnny Oduya and Paul Martin at the points and David Clarkson, Dainius Zubrus and Brian Gionta up front.

***

I really don't understand why the Devils don't give out new numbers to players.

Leach is wearing No, 28, which was worn by rookie defenseman Anssi Salmela before he was sent down earlier today.

Leach wore No. 25 in his previous two stints with the Devils this season, but that was while Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond was not here. Leblond reclaimed No. 25 when he was called up on Monday.

***

Today's line combinations and defnse pairs.

Forwards: Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner; Elias-Zubrus-Gionta; Pandolfo-Madden-Clarkson; Leblond-Rupp-Rolston; Tallackson-Holik-Brookbank.

Defensemen: Salvador-Martin; White-Oduya; Leach-Mottau.

Goaltenders: Weekes, Clemmensen.

Comments

[Nanoose]

Lou Lou Lou. Stupid rule how no Devil can wear higher then #40...

[Tom Gulitti]

What if they just gave him a number between 30 and 40? That would be better than this.

[Nanoose]

I agree TG. Why not 10 or 18 or anything between 30 and 40?

Lou Lou Lou

[John]

It's so asinine. Lou just trying to make a point that it's all about the team, and not the number/player on the back. TG, do you think Salmela ever gets recalled now that Leach took his number? Is that a sign? Or will Lou just demote Leblonde and give Salmela no. 25?

Either way, it's so dumb. It's another thing that's frustrating as a Devils fan.

[ZM]

Between 30 and 40? With Clemmer back, apparently we can't go above 35 now. I wonder why Leach was given Salmela's number so soon though. 10 is available, though no defenseman has ever worn that number, ditto 18. We all know that no Devil has ever worn 13, though I'd love TG to ask Lou why that still applies. IIRC, it was the first equipment manager who was superstitious enough to not issue it. Little uniform history of the Devils: Only 5 players have ever worn a number above 40, and only three established stars after Lou arrived.

Obviously, we need to free up 13 so we can sign Sundin, and I recommend we let Leach wear number 4 and let the magic happen. ;)

[Rob]

Maybe they're doing it to either
A. Instill confidence in Leech (he's taking over for Salmela)
B. Further show Salmela that he shouldn't take his time on the team for granted

or

C. Management gets SERIOUS perks from the company that makes the player nameplates.

It's gotta be one of those reasons.

[Nanoose]

ZM, i've got 3 of those 5 players. Who are the others?

Alexander Mogilny - 89
Doug Gilmour - 93
Stephane Richer - 44

[Tom Gulitti]

Richer (44), Mogilny (89), Gilmour (93).

[Nanoose]

ZM says there are five players. TG & I got the same three, but we need two more.

[Keith]

Didnt parise wear like 52 or 53 in his first game or was that just his first exhibition game?

[Frank Pyzik]

Numbers don't matter fellas, Honestly who cares..But I really don't like sending Salmela down when he was playing so well lately just firing the puck at the net. Leach is a big strong defender, but with Rolston and Maddog coming back it would be nice to have that extra scoring touch from the point.

However, If they go back to putting Rolston on the point on the powerplay..I could also see them needing some bulk in the defensive zone instead of another offensive defenseman.

[FOTC]

Our defense is truly sickening. We're not going to win anything until we upgrade it to NHL standards. Hopefully Eckford and Corrente pan out, because it doesn't look like Lou's going to make a move anytime soon.

[steve]

wow i never really thought of how the devil's players don't have numbers above 40. interesting little fact. not a big fan of that rule, but more importantly i think it would be amazing if we could finally get a black third jersey

[SonicDude]

mikeshoenf

i never said greene and mottau for vinny. when you argue against posts you have not read, you look foolish.

[Triumph]

i think rocky trottier wore #88.

[mike in pa]

its only one number

88, worn by Rocky Trottier and Garry Howatt

unless you count 40 worn by Mitch Wilson

[Matt McNaught]

In the early days, two players wore 88 - Rocky Trottier and Garry Howatt

[ZM]

Nanoose and Tom,

You guys missed Gary Howitt in 1983 and 1982's 8th overall pick Rocky Trottier in 1984. Both wore 88. What future Devils did we pass up to pick Trottier in the 82 draft? Andreychuk (taken 16th overall) and Gilmour (7th round). Daneyko was taken 18th overall as well.

[ZM]

It should also be noted that skaters have not been issues numbers over 30 either. The last examples I can think of would be Steve Thomas (32) from 96-98, and before that Zdeno Ciger (33) and Janne Ojanan (34) back in 92-93.

[bence174]

Third jerseys are lame, leave that garbage for the NBA. We don't need a black third jersey. If anything, this league needs FEWER uniforms w/ black in the color scheme. If we do have to get a third jersey, which I hope we don't, I hope it's just the old Pizza Box jerseys.

[SonicDude]

TG -

I dont understand what is going on with salmela. sutter says he likes him/his play, then the devils send him down.

i see all your points as to why he was sent down, but is there more to it? do you know him and if so, can he roll with these ups and downs? i just wonder if this supposed star from an elite european league might be having second thoughts about coming here.

[Ray]

Is there a certain reason rolston is skating on the fourth line? is he just going to get a few minutes to see how he feels?

[Mat L.]

Reid Simpson wore 33

Also in 91-92, Neids wore 48 for a couple of games and Myles O'Connor wore 46 for 9 games according to the HockeyDB.

[shredder29]

TG: Can you please shed some light on why o why do we never give our prospect a shot to play?? I would hate to be anyone on Lowell because what the sense of playing well and scoring goals when we basically have two checking lines and these kids are getting 4mins a game. I cant figure it out to save my life why sheldon brookbank is playing forward? Yea he has size and can play well defensively but so can ten other guys on lowell? Why do we just keep him around, when someone with a future can learn to play in the nhl. I dont get Sutter at all and these roster moves are awful!! I think jay leach is solid but Salmela has been a huge offensive catalist for us. Am i the only one lost??? what are we doin?? Theres no way we aregonna be able to compete with our local teams when our depth is totally mishandled. PLease sir shed some light for me..

[Bob]

What rule's are you talking about?! there is no rule that Lou personally makes not allowing players have numbers above 40. We have had players above 40 when he was around. Have you ever thought maybe the guys on our team like low numbers or maybe they just don't care and Lou just say hey how about this number. How do you think Zubrus went from 16 last year to 8 this year. He didn't care about the number and Lou threw out a random number and he said yes. Stop reading into all this BS about numbers none of it is true. Salmela originally had number 33 in team Finland and 44 on the local team he played for. He obviously doesn't care what number and how does anyone know if that was the number he choose? None of you do so stop it. LeBlond had 25 first and he is getting it back. Leach uses the number 2 in Lowell and used LeBlond's 25 temporarily because maybe he wanted 25 because Davis is number 25 in Lowell and he couldn't have it there. My point is there is no reason why numbers are chosen players don't care so stop putting up stupid posts about it.

FOTC our defense has been doing where our of 6 games we have won 5. With almost 2 goal against averaging recently. So what are you talking about.

By the way nice job on finding on the other 2 guys that wore higher numbers than 40 that would be a great trivia question.