The New Jersey Devils enter tonight's fourth meeting of the season against the Florida Panthers as one of the healthiest teams in the league.  There I said it.  You might hate me for saying this, but it's the truth.  Only Jay Pandolfo remains on injured reserve with his ligament injury.  Relative to the rest of the NHL, that is good news for the Devils, who are battling for the divisional lead.

The Florida Panthers organization and fans may agree with my assessment.  They have seven players on IR and Olesz will join them on the sidelines for the next four games minimum with a hand injury.  According to Yahoo Sports, the Panthers’ injuries look something like this.

Florida Panthers  Rostislav Olesz LW Jan 16, 2008 Day-to-Day Left Game - Left Hand

Jozef Stumpel RW Jan 12, 2008 Injured Reserve Separated Right Shoulder

Branislav Mezei D Jan 8, 2008 Injured Reserve Hand

Ville Peltonen LW Dec 16, 2007 Injured Reserve Broken Foot

Garth Murray C Dec 6, 2007 Injured Reserve Right Shoulder Surgery

Mike Van Ryn D Nov 21, 2007 Injured Reserve Right Wrist

Cory Murphy D Nov 15, 2007 Injured Reserve Bruised Shoulder

Noah Welch D Oct 17, 2007 Injured Reserve Shoulder, 11/5 Surgery 

As a result, the Panthers have lost 5 of 6 and 8 of 10 overall and are entering dangerous territory, the Devils home ice.  New Jersey is 19-7-3 lifetime at home against Florida, and has won the past six meetings in New Jersey, said Brian Biggane of the PalmBeachPost in his preview.

The Devils will play without John Madden and Jay Pandolfo for only the second time since 1999, as I dutifully noted, in my preview.

Enforcer Cam Janssen remains out with his separated shoulder, even though he has returned to skating during practice.  I personally see no reason to bring him back before the All-Star break.  Neither does the Devils organization.

Other than those three individuals, everyone else is relatively healthy.  Karel Rachunek, who missed 10 games with a knee/ankle injury, even though he missed the past week healthy, will return to the lineup and cover the blue line as usual.  He will also spend time on the power play, which failed to score on five opportunities in the 3-1 loss to the NY Islanders on Wednesday night.

Lines/Pairings at Yesterday’s Practice according to Tom Guliti

Forwards: Zubrus-Elias-Gionta; Parise-Zajac-Lagenbrunner; Pelley-Madden (left early)-Clarkson; Rupp-Brylin-Asham; Tallackson-Pandolfo-Janssen.

Defensemen: White-Mottau; Oduya-Martin; Vishnevski-Greene; Brookbank-Rachunek

Without Madden and Pandolfo on the third line, Pelley, Clarkson and Brylin will have to step up in their place.  Rupp, Asham, and whoever will play sparingly on the fourth line.

Defensively, Sheldon Brookbank will likely miss another game as a healthy scratch.

TV and Radio:
FSNY HD and WFAN 660AM

I am very frustrated by the league's decision to keep Sunday's game as scheduled.  The New York Giants are playing at 6:30 and the Devils are playing at 5:00 due to Toronto's second half of two games in two days and league policy about playing back to back games.

The games will not overlap too much since hockey contests do not last more than 2.5 hours.  Nevertheless, I hate when this happens, especially for the most important game of the season for the Giants, which I will be watching in entirety.

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