In Lou We Trust

Tom Gulitti remains on fire in his training camp/preseason coverage, but he's unfortunately been the bearer of bad news.

First, Jamie Langenbrunner and Cam Janssen will have to have surgery for their respective injuries. While there is no word on how long each of them will be out; I would imagine they will miss part of the beginning of the season (surgery, time to recover/rehab, get back into shape, etc.). Hopefully their respective procedures will be successful and the two will get healthy soon.

Second, Colin White was struck in the face with a puck via a shot in practice today. Blood was spilled, White obviously was attended to, and the team won't know more about the severity of the damage until tomorrow. At the very least, it's a laceration above the right eye. A puck striking a player is painful enough, it's even more painful if hits them in the face. I hope and pray White will recover from this quickly and properly.

With Langenbrunner and Janssen presumably out for the start of the season and now perhaps White, Sutter will have his work cut out for him to figure out who will fill those roles in the meantime. The Devils will look a lot different than expected to start the season, that's for sure. Hopefully, nobody else will get hurt prior to the actual season starting to make an already complicated situation even more complicated.

Speaking of filling in roles, Gulitti has an interesting blurb about the Devils power play today: Sutter thinks the Devils have the defensemen to play the point in one-man advantage power plays. Last season, we saw Langenbrunner and Patrik Elias get some action at the points to some...let's call it mixed success. Sutter likes what he's seen out of Rachunek, and I would imagine Martin is a safe bet for one of the other point slots. To be honest, I wasn't sold on Johnny Oduya at the point last season because he didn't get a lot of time there, he was usually there only when necessary, and while he has a hard slap shot, it wasn't very accurate. Maybe Oduya has worked on his shooting and puck possession to be able to handle that role? I don't know. I'm also not sold on Andy Greene playing the point on power plays; I know he is considered to be a two-way defenseman who has some offensive talent, but I'm concerned about his inexperience. On the other hand, he'll only get that experience when he's actually getting time there. I can see those four playing the four spots (2 per power play unit) on the point, but I can't say I'm enthused by it. Then again, I won't be that excited about a Devils power play unit until such a unit plays consistently well - something we didn't see last season.