Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Devils suit up just 15 skaters against Pittsburgh this afternoon

Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Trevor Gillies

New Jersey Devils’ Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, left, fights with New York Islanders’ Trevor Gillies during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 10, 2010, in Newark, N.J. The Devils won 7-1. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

AP

You had to know that when it was known that the Devils wouldn’t be able to afford any injuries early in the season thanks to their salary cap constraints that the hockey gods would find a way to make things interesting. It turns out that day is today as the Devils will be skating just 15 players in their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins this afternoon. Tom Gulitti shares the minimal personnel details in New Jersey.

Defenseman Anton Volchenkov (broken nose) and left wing Brian Rolston (lower body) will be miss the game because of injuries they sustained in Saturday’s 7-2 loss in Washington, general manager Lou Lamoriello said.

Left wing Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond will sit out to serve his automatic one-game suspension for instigating a fight in the final five minutes of Saturday’s game.

The Devils do not have the salary cap space to add any players today.

“We will be playing with the healthy people we have here,” Lamoriello said. “Volchenkov will not play. It’s obvious the puck hit his face shield and broke his nose and cut his face. He’ll be out today. Rolston has got a lower-body injury. He will be out today. We won’t know to what degree that is until after he meets with the doctors today. We’ll give you an update later on. Leblond, who was suspended, was put on waivers today.”


Martin Brodeur is about the only guaranteed guy in the lineup these days in New Jersey but goalie is about the only position not suffering from injury. Leblond’s suspension and subsequent visit to the waiver wire indicates that his selfish and foolish actions against Washington aren’t appreciated by the very team-oriented Devils. Adam Mair has continued to work out with the Devils and if Leblond ends up back in the AHL, Mair could be in line for a minimal contract.

Of course, that’s just skirting the issue of the major cap issues facing the Devils. Sure, Ilya Kovalchuk is going to take the brunt of the blame for putting the Devils in a bad spot here, but the truth is Devils GM Lou Lamoriello is the designer of this financial disaster thanks to terrible contracts given to Brian Rolston and Dainius Zubrus.

The Devils knew full well what they might have to deal with going into this season and with one freak injury to Anton Volchenkov, a nagging issue for Brian Rolston, and a boneheaded play by Pierre-Luc Letorneau-Leblond, now the Devils are forced to go with just 15 skaters to try and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Going with just nine forwards, six defenseman, and two goalies. Depending on how this situation plays out, it could be the kind of thing that forces Lamoriello’s hand into making a move to free up cap space for the Devils to at least add players to the roster so they can have backups.