Brodeur to go the distance again vs Flyers; Murphy, Halischuk will sit

Here's the Devils' lineup for tonight's preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center.

Forwards: Zach Parise-Travis Zajac-Jamie Langenbrunner; Brian Rolston-Dainius Zubrus-David Clarkson, Brendan Shanahan-Tim Sestito-Niclas Bergfors; Jay Pandolfo-Rod Pelley-Andrew Peters.

Defensemen: Colin White-Andy Greene; Johnny Oduya-Paul Martin; Bryce Salvador-Jay Leach. 

Goaltenders: Martin Brodeur, Yann Danis.

Right wing Matt Halischuk and defenseman Cory Murphy both participated in the morning skate this morning, but won't dress tonight. The lineup listed on the board in the Devils' locker room originally had Murphy in and Leach out, but Devlils coach Jacques Lemaire said Murphy and Halischuk are not playing tonight.

Brodeur will start in net and is scheduled to play the full game.

***

I wrote earlier that I didn't see Vladimir Zharkov this morning, but he was just sitting somewhere that I couldn't see him. He is on the ice right now with the other extra players who are not playing tonight -- Olivier Magnan-Grenier, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Rob Davison, Ben Walter, Ilkka Pikkarainen and Jeff Frazee.

This is Pikkarainen's first time on the ice since Monday because he was ill.

***

Lemaire said Mike Mottau (upper body) and Mark Fraser (head), "are not ready to go out there yet."

***

Danis said he "tweaked" his neck a little bit during the skate this morning, but was feeling fine afterward.

"A defenseman backed up into me and I kind of tweaked my neck and it went down my arm a little bit," Danis said ."It hurt when it happened, but right away it went away."

***

Tonight's game is not on TV in New Jersey or Philadelphia. The stream of the Devils' radio broadcast will be on www.wfan.com and www.newjerseydevils.com.

Comments

[BrickCityDevil]

Sub in Murphy for Leach and Zharkov or Pikka for Peters and im liking that lineup.

[95-00-03]

Guess Murphy is the odd man out with Leach in.

SIZE DOES MATTER tonight

[95-00-03]

Peters will be there for 1 reason only and it's not to do the teams laundry ;)

[bf from aus]

Any Tv or Radio telecast for tonights game?

[TG]

No TV in New Jersey or Philadelphia. The Devils' radio will be streamed on WFAN's Web site and on the Devils' Web site.

[mikeP]

TG, would PLx3 have to clear waivers to go down to Lowell? I thought he signed a 1-way contract this offseason, which would require waivers. It's interesting that Peters is playing over him against Philly tonight. Could it be that Peters beat him out for the enforcer role?

With the chemistry that Bergfors and Rolston seemed to have shown on the PP, I'm surprised that he's playing on the 3rd line. You'd think that Bergfors would better compliment Zubrus and Rolston. Zubrus is the guy that would go to the net, Rolston the shooter, and Bergfors the finesse guy. 3rd line with Shanny and Niedermayer/Sestito would seem to reduce Bergfors' value

[95-00-03]

Saturday night and both MSG and MSG+ have garbage on.

Well MSG+ is Celebrating Marty's 552 win at 8:30 so I guess I will give them a pass.

Still BS that they couldn't show this game - if it was the Rags they would be all over it.

[JJ]

Part of that 95-00-03 is that ratings for Rags games are higher and the advert $'s are higher as a result, the other part of that is that to broadcast an away game you need to truck equipment & people on the road which costs $. Unfortunately pretty much the only people that would watch the game tonight would be people reading this blog and like maybe 1,000 others so they can't justify the cost of production. Marty's Milestones costs them nothing & it's not even in HD. Heck, a Devils REGULAR season game brings less revenue than an infomercial because of production costs. Streaming the radio broadcast is very very cheap. All you need is announcers, a small case of equipment and an internet connection.

[95-00-03]

True, but they are home tonight and I really think that the Devils could, at the very least, offer a feed on the Devils website for those of us that can't attend every home game.

[95-00-03]

How bout a simple video camera with an internet feed. I could do it myself for a few hundred bucks.

[JJ]

How about just going to the game? A ticket on stub hub would probably cost you more in stubhub fees than the actual ticket. :)

[JJ]

Unfortunately we have a tv contract with the ownership of our #1 rival, they aren't going to do us any favors.

[JJ]

That's a great idea 05-00-03. I wonder what legal BS they'd have to go through with MSG & the league to set something like that up. Old time hockey broadcast style just a camera and no announcers would be cool.

[Scotty K]

JJ, they pay the team 25 million a yr for the rights. 10 higher then what YES and SNY was speculated to spend. Dolan helped pay for our arena... that really must grind the gears of Ranger fans. So we might not get to see a pre-season game or 2 or 3 but we can always shove that in the raggot fans faces.

[Scott731]

You can probably just show up tonight and get in for free. I'm usually giving away vouchers if I'm not taking people and I've seen other people who do the same thing.

[95-00-03]

It's not a money issue. I just can't make the game and feel I am being punished.

They can stream the game over the internet without getting the rights - this is 2009 not 1979 where all you had was radio.

All you need is a video camera and an internet connection.

You could listen to the radio and watch the game at the same time.

That and a 12 pack is all I need to be happy ;P

[Futureman]

Zharkov needs to get a long look. Im no pro scout but ive been playing/watching the game for 25 years. He looks very good at times. Lemaire will be good for him.

[modnarm]

all this BS about Bergfors not being on the 2nd line and chemistry and crap.. please.

first of all.. Clarkson and Zubrus HAVE shown some chemistry- IMO more chemistry than Bergfors has with anyone... Clarkson is a BETTER player right now... so that line is absolutely perfect in my mind.

Bergfors and Shanny should do just fine. It'll be interesting how Sestito does as well as that 4th line.

Maybe if this Rolston-Zubrus-Clarkson line really gels we'll keep it and just put Elias in Sestito's spot?? Talk about balance. I bet Shanny and Elias would enjoy playing with each other.

OR maybe by then Bergfors gets more confident and is ready for 2nd line responsibilities and we'll have
Rolston-Elias-Bergfors
Shanahan-Zubrus-Clarkson

That 3rd line is SO solid and the players compliment each other so well. It was great in that one game against the Rags.. AND ITS GREAT ON NHL 2010 haha. I hope it gets another look if Bergfors can step it up to the 2nd line. But right now Clarkson is the man for that job.

[Jeff O.]

Thank God I don't have to listen to WIP again. That was one of the worst hockey radio experiences ever. I'll gladly take Matt and Sherry over the homers they have over there in Philly.

[Ken Klee Klub]

WIP has to be very homer after the Carton/Lindros debacle that almost cost the station the Sixers and Flyers. Craig Carton went on the air with some damaging info about Lindros. It had to do with off ice behavior. Carton was actually jettisoned out of town and use to break alot of stories until he turned in the Howard Stern wannabe he is now.

There are countless stories of Lindros concussions having more to do with off ice antics, including allegations of car crashes while drinking, getting knocked out by another player at a bar and other issues.

[Noam N. Kogen]

Modnarm is correct that Clarkson is better now than Bergfors but those who want to get a good look at Bergfors with highly skilled players also have a good point.

The NHL season is an 82 game season. The forward line combinations and defense tandems one may see a week from tonight may not be the same as for Game One of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on April 14 or 15, 2010.

Let's hope we go into the NHL Playoffs healthy and whole and hope for sixteen playoff victories.

[Syarifah]

Congratulation to Doug & Amy....Mindy I know you must be sooooo proud of him he is such a hansodme young man.......Love the pics & thanks for sharing them with us..Hugs Maria