There hasn’t been a more consistent lineup presence in New Jersey over the last few years than Andy Greene.
Which makes today’s development so noteworthy.
Greene, who has been dealing with an upper-body injury, will miss tonight’s game against Toronto at Prudential, per NHL.com. That will snap his consecutive games played streak at 350 -- the third-longest in Devils history -- and will mark his first missed game since the ’11-12 campaign.
New Jersey’s captain for each of the last two seasons, Greene’s had a tough year. His TOI is down to 21:43 per night and while he does have fairly decent offensive production -- nine points through 39 games has him on pace to beat last year’s 13 -- it figures to be well off the career-high of 37 he posted a few years ago.
No word yet on who will replace Greene in the lineup, but it’s likely Ben Lovejoy will see another uptick in minutes as a result:
Lovejoy on playing 28:00 vs. CAR: "Not my favorite thing to do." Impressed by D that do it a lot: "There's a reason they get paid $8 mil."
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) January 6, 2017