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Veteran winger Patrik Elias could be facing supplementary discipline for his hit on Montreal's Mike Blunden that sent Blunden crashing into the boards during the first period.

Blunden did not return to the game after the play, which earned Elias a two-minute boarding minor penalty at 18:54 of the first. According to the Canadiens, Blunden suffered a lower-body injury.

Elias said he thought the play could've gone either way.

"I don't know. There were a couple hits on our guys. [The official] said our guys turned when they saw a guy coming. It was the same way. I was on the inside position and he kind of turned into the boards. [The official] says he has to make that call anytime the [player's number's are facing] a player," he said. "I get it. I think maybe it could've been called both ways. It's tough."

When asked if he expected to receive a call from league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan, who heads the league's Department of Player Safety, Elias didn't speculate. He said he'll wait until the league makes a decision.

"I'll handle it then," he said.

Both David Clarkson and Zach Parise notched a pair of goals in the team's 5-3 win over Montreal on Thursday night.

With his second-period power-play marker that pulled the Devils within one goal, 3-2, Clarkson surpassed his career-high with 18 goals. Clarkson, who recorded 17 goals in 2008-09, got a piece of Ilya Kovalchuk's blast from the left point to whittle Montreal's lead at 13:43. The puck glanced in off his shin-pads, a goal that was upheld after an official video review.

The 27-year-old gritty winger, who scored the game-tying goal in Tuesday's 4-3 shootout win over the Rangers on a bizarre bounce off the partition with less than a minute remaining, said he feels pretty luck lately.

'It was just one of those luck bounces," he said. "I was just going hard to the net. Something's going on. ... I think I might buy a lottery ticket."

Clarkson added another -- his 19th of the season -- on an empty-netter scored with less than a minute remaining and picked up an assist on Dainius Zubrus' equalizer earlier in the third.

"It's nice," Clarkson said of his career numbers, "but at this point, it's not something I'm thinking about. We're in a tight race."

• • •

Parise also tallied twice in the Devils come-from-behind victory over the hapless Habs.

The Devils captain recorded his 11th point in 11 games, beating Montreal goaltender Carey Price from the left circle to cut Montreal's lead in half, 2-1, at 10:36 in the first and went on to score the game-winner late in the third period.

Parise ripped a sharp-angle shot past Price for a 4-3 lead with 2:44 remaining -- his 18th of the season -- and said he was relieved to see the bounces go in the Devils' favor.

"About time, isn't it? They always go against us, it seems. So it's time we get some bounces," he said.

• • •

Looking to ignite his trailing squad in the third period, coach Pete DeBoer juggled line combinations, moving Patrik Elias up to the first line between Parise and Kovalchuk.

Trying to spark the team?

"Yeah, that's exactly what we were doing."

The Devils delivered another thrilling third-period comeback, toppling the Canadiens 5-3 to conclude a six-game homestand, but the team's second consecutive win featured what could be a troubling loss.

With the team rallying in the third, rookie defenseman Adam Larsson went down with what the Devils are calling a "bruised lower back".

Larsson had to be helped off the ice by two teammates after a teeth-rattling hit from Montreal's P.K. Subban lifted him off his skates and left him down on the ice for several minutes. Larsson left with 5:58 remaining in regulation and did not return.

After the game, Devils coach Pete DeBoer said he didn't believe Larsson's injury was too serious. Larsson was not available to the media after the game.

"From what I understand it looks like just a bruise," he said.

DeBoer had no problem with the hit Larsson took from Subban, who received no penalty on the play.

"I thought it was a clean hit," he said.

DeBoer said it was too early to tell whether the rookie defenseman will be available for this weekend's back-to-back set, but Larsson suffered more than one hard hit in a high-intensity, physical game between the two teams. Larsson was slow to get up earlier in the game after a hit from Montreal's Mathieu Darche left a cut on his right cheekbone.

"He's trying to make a difference in the game. That's his mentality. He's that type of player. He's grabbing the puck and going with it in the tough areas and he took some tough hits doing it. I give him full marks," DeBoer said of the first-year player. "He's a tough kid that's trying to make a difference in an important game."

Should Larsson miss any time, it would be a crushing blow to the Devils' already-battered blue line. Veteran defenseman Henrik Tallinder is questionable for the rest of the season; he was placed on injured reserve Jan. 19 with acute thrombophlebitis in his left leg. The team just recently returned Andy Greene, who missed two months with an injured foot, and was forced to dress seven defensemen Thursday with Bryce Salvador battling through an ankle injury suffered in the Devils' 4-3 shootout win over the Rangers on Tuesday night.

Defenseman Kurtis Foster was also banged up in the first after a hit by Darche into the boards. After leaving the ice before the end of the period, he returned to start the second, but didn't play for long. After committing a turnover that led to Montreal's shorthanded goal in the second, Foster played only one more 16-second shift the entire game.

Foster said it had nothing to do with his health, however.

"I was just benched."

Recap | Box score | Photos

What it means: After Devils winger Dainius Zubrus tied the game with a deflection of Alexei Ponikarovsky's shot at 6:11 of the third, Devils captain Zach Parise tallied the go-ahead goal -- his second score of the night -- to boost the Devils over the Canadiens 5-3. Losers of three straight heading into the All-Star break, the Devils concluded their six-game homestand with their second consecutive comeback win, although it did not come without a price. Rookie defenseman Adam Larsson left the game in the third period with a bruised lower back and did not return.

Career-high for Clarkson: Gritty winger David Clarkson eclipsed his career-high mark, scoring a pair of goals to put him at 19 for the season. With the Devils on the power-play, Clarkson got a piece of Ilya Kovalchuk's blast from the left point, which also deflected off a Montreal defenseman before reaching Clarkson in front of the net. Clarkson also recorded an assist on Zubrus' third-period equalizer before adding an empty-netter with less than a minute remaining in the game.

Another shorty: The Devils surrendered their league-worst 13th short-handed goal of the season, to Mathieu Darche at 1:35 in the second. Defenseman Kurtis Foster, who turned the puck over on the play, was benched for the remainder of the period and played only one 16-second shift the rest of the game.

No goal: With the Devils trailing 2-1 early in the second, Kovalchuk's short-handed attempt teetered on the goal line behind Montreal's Carey Price. No whistle was blown, which prompted Ponikarovsky to sweep in for the put-back, but the original call on the ice -- no goal -- was upheld after video review.

Blunden blunder: Patrik Elias was assessed a boarding minor for his crushing hit on Mike Blunden that sent the Habs winger flying into the boards near Montreal's bench. Blunden, who suffered a lower-body injury on the play, did not return to the game.

Early deficit: The Devils gave up a pair goals in the first 9:23 of the game to fall behind Montreal 2-0. Winger Rene Bourque banked a sharp-angle shot from the goal line off David Desharnais' helmet at 4:11 and Andre Kostitsyn extended the Habs' lead halfway through the period. Goaltender Martin Brodeur challenged Kostitsyn with a poke-check in front, but Kostitsyn spun around him and wrapped in a goal at 9:23.

Seven on D: With Bryce Salvador playing through a "tweaked" ankle, coach Pete DeBoer elected to dress seven defensemen. Salvador deemed his ankle "definitely playable," but DeBoer replaced forward Brad Mills in the lineup with defenseman Matt Taormina after warm-ups as insurance.

Drought drags on: Former Devil Scott Gomez' woeful goal drought has lasted almost one full calendar year. The 32-year-old center, who won two Stanley Cups with New Jersey, has not tallied a goal since Feb. 5, 2011 -- a 2-0 win over his former Rangers team. In 2009, The Rangers shipped Gomez and his albatross seven-year, $51.5 million contract to Montreal, where he has been an even bigger bust since his days on Broadway. He has recorded only 19 goals over 178 games in two-plus seasons with the Canadiens.

Missing down the middle: With Adam Henrique missing his second straight game with a groin injury, the Devils are fighting the same uphill battle they have all season: lack of depth at center. The team is also without top-line pivot Travis Zajac, who is on injured reserve with lingering pain in his surgically-repaired Achilles tendon. Jacob Josefson has been inconsistent after missing almost three months with a broken clavicle; the 20-year-old Swede centered the fourth line Thursday against Montreal.

Up Next: Devils at Flyers, 1 p.m. Saturday.

Recap | Box score | Photos

WHAT IT MEANS: Montreal’s Bell Centre continues to be a house of horrors for the Rangers. The Blueshirts lost for the sixth straight time there, falling to the Canadiens in blowout fashion, 4-1 on Sunday night. The Rangers haven't beaten the Habs in Montreal since March 17, 2009.

GUT-CHECK TIME: The Rangers (28-11-4) came in with an NHL-best 60 points, and had won 11 of their previous 13 games -- including three straight on the road. But none of that mattered on Sunday night. The Canadiens (17-20-8) looked like the more desperate team from the start and beat the Rangers at their own game, getting pucks in deep, winning battles along the boards and capitalizing on a couple turnovers. The Rangers are usually sound in their end zone. But that wasn't the case on Sunday night. Coach John Tortorella will likely rip into his team in the dressing room for its poor effort.

BLANK SHEET: Marian Gaborik hasn't scored a goal in the last five games, while $60 million man Brad Richards hasn't recorded a point in the last four.

MAX EFFORT: Max Pacioretty finished with two goals -- Nos. 14 and 15 on the season -- and an assist. The left winger opened the scoring at 2:39 of the first, and later gave the Habs a 2-1 lead at 3:54 of the second.

LONE RANGER: John Mitchell jammed home a rebound for his third marker of the season at 12:49 of the first.

FRUSTRATING FRAME: The Rangers allowed three goals in a span of 8:24 during the second period.

RARE SKID: After winning a career-best seven starts in a row, all-world netminder Henrik Lundqvist has lost his last two -- allowing seven goals in those losses. Lundqvist, who made 25 saves, fell to 19-9-4 on the season.

INJURY NOTES: Kris Newbury dressed in place of Ruslan Fedotenko (back). Brandon Dubinsky (shoulder) missed his third straight game.

WHAT'S NEXT: Rangers vs. Predators, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Recap | Box score | Photos

It was an up-and-down night at the Garden for the Rangers, and in the end the Rangers ended up on the downside, falling 2-1 to the Montreal Canadiens. Here's how it all went down:

Consistent Inconsistency

The Rangers dominated play early, controlling the puck for long stretches in the Montreal zone and generating several scoring chances while the Canadiens D spun into the ice. But the Rangers could never pull away with a second goal and, after earning their first power play, never looked that good again in the first 40 minutes. The Habs still mustered very little in the way of scoring opportunities, but New York was no longer dominating play and with under two minutes to play in the second period, it finally cost the Rangers when the Habs got on the board. More on that below.

First Blood

Just seconds after new acquisition Wojtek Wolski nearly notched his first goal on Broadway, Brandon Dubinsky raced down the right wing boards, blew past a hulking-but-helpless Hal Gill, cut across the crease and roofed the puck over the blocker of Alex Auld, who was filling in for all-star Carey Price. Matt Gilroy picked up an assist, as did Henrik Lundqvist, the goalie’s fourth helper of the season and ninth of his career.

Chemistry Test

It’s early, but Wolski acquitted himself well in the first period. Marian Gaborik set up his newest linemate at the four-minute mark for a hip-high shot off the rush, but it was stopped by Auld. About three minutes later, Wolski combined with Gaborik for another great scoring opportunity, with Gaborik pulling the trigger this time. That too was denied, but Wolski didn’t quit there and finished a check against the Habs’ Lars Eller along the left boards before skating to the Ranger bench. Wolski nearly made a grand debut with a game-tying goal with two minutes remaining in the third, but Auld barely knocked it down with his right arm and no Ranger could deposit the loose puck as it trickled through the crease. With 40 seconds to go Auld nicked another Wolski shot with his skate to spoil the winger's Ranger debut and give the Habs the win.

Messin’ With Their Heads

With four minutes left in the first Brian Boyle absolutely hounded hot-headed P.K. Subban on the forecheck forcing the D-man behind his net and then giving him a little love tap after Subban passed the puck away. Subban retaliated by crosschecking Boyle across his chest, earning the Rangers a power play. It was short lived though as Marc Staal was forced to take an interference penalty to stop a Montreal breakaway after a bad Ranger turnover at the top of the Habs’ zone. At least the theory was sound.

The Other PK

The Ranger kill looked strong on its first and only full-length appearance, successfully working off a Dan Girardi holding penalty in the second. The Blueshirts were helped by a nice blocked shot low in the zone by Michael Sauer and even broke out for an odd-man rush midway through following a takeaway by Ruslan Fedotenko.

Line Juggling

Head Coach John Tortorella switched up his line combinations in the second period (shocking, I know), trying out both Derek Stepan and Dubinsky between Gaborik and Wolski. The latter combination produced a ton of pressure midway through the period, resulting in scoring chances for both Gaborik and Dubinsky during the shift.

Old Acquaintances

Yes, the game featured former Ranger Scott Gomez and former Devil Brian Gionta, but it also returned James Wisniewski, late of the Islanders, to New York. You may remember Wisniewski and Sean Avery had an interesting conversation via pantomime earlier this season. There were no gloves dropped or other noticeable gestures but Avery seemed to be flying tonight. He buzzed around the net and had several stuff attempts in addition to a few nice setups for his teammates. Of course it was Wisniewski who wound up on the score sheet with an assist on the Habs' second goal.

No Donut

Henrik Lundqvist’s shutout bid was denied late in the second when Jaroslav Spacek scored on a fluky play. It looked like Lundqvist had stopped the puck, but Brian Boyle and a Canadiens player pushed the Ranger goalie into the net and the puck over the line. After a (very) brief review, the goal stood and the game was tied at one.

The Final 20

It was almost a horrific start to the period for the Rangers as Lundqvist was forced to make a clutch save to stave off a Canadiens goal in the first 30 seconds. Things settled down after that until five minutes in when Lundqvist slammed the door shut on Gionta from point blank range. The Rangers looked like they'd caught a big break until Benoit Pouliot raced down the left boards and sniped a wrister over Lunqvist's shoulder from the left faceoff dot for the go-ahead goal.

The Rangers are back in action at the Garden Tuesday night and the Blog will be there for our rapid reaction. But first, here are three factors to focus on when the puck drops. See if you can detect a theme.

Which Wolski Is This?

Wojtek Wolski, acquired yesterday from the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Michal Rozsival, is expected to be available for Tuesday’s game with the Montreal Canadiens. Now the question becomes, exactly which Wojtek Wolski will Rangers fans get to see?

The knock on the Polish winger is his fluctuating effort level. Sometimes (which equates to “far too often” for Phoenix GM Don Maloney) Wolski just doesn’t turn on the jets come game time, which put him in the Coyotes’ doghouse and ultimately on the trading block. But other times Wolski can be a tremendous offensive asset. Last season, Wolski scored 65 points in 80 regular season games between Colorado and Phoenix, then added four goals and an assist in the Yotes’ playoff series loss to Detroit.

If the Rangers can coax out the latter Wolski, they could have finally found the complementary winger for Marian Gaborik that Alexander Frolov was supposed to be. If Wolski still wants to mail it in, well, the Blueshirts still gained $1.2 million in cap room.

How Will The D Do?

Though he was derided for the fact his performance on the ice didn’t justify his $5 million per season contract, Rozsival was a solid contributor on the Rangers’ blue line, particularly this season. The development of the Blueshirts prospects, particularly Michael Sauer, seems to have made the veteran Rozsival expendable. But as GM Glen Sather admitted in the media conference call, it’s a gamble.

The Rangers’ defensive corps now average just 24 years of age, which is almost prenatal relative to some blue lines. So how will the youngin’s perform? Will they get flustered if they give up a goal? What about crunch time?

Beginning tonight, those are questions Sather will have to monitor between now and the trading deadline.

Does Size Matter?

The Canadiens sometimes seem like a group of gnats swarming the net. With diminutive forwards Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri, the Habs sport a very short, but very, very fast group of forwards. That presents an interesting challenge for the physical Blueshirts.

Do the Rangers try to line these guys up for big hits, which could really do some damage given the size differential, or not? If they get them, they put the hurt on. If they miss, they may give up more than a few odd-man rushes.

As you’ve no doubt read by now, the Islanders dealt D James Wisniewski to the Montreal Canadiens for a second-round pick in this coming draft and a conditional fifth-rounder the following year.

The move has some Islander fans frustrated that this season's top defenseman -- who was also tied for the team lead in points -- was being shipped out, in December, for more draft picks. Yes, it’s yet another step in a seemingly never-ending rebuilding project, but everyone knows the Islanders aren’t going anywhere in 2010-11, so adding chips for the future makes sense. You can’t fault GM Garth Snow and the Islanders for that.

You can, however, fault the team for getting less than top value for one of their most coveted trade assets. And it certainly appears the Islanders sold a little low on Wisniewski.

The value of any tradeable asset is always relative to the market and already this season we’ve seen one team trade for an established blueliner, with the Washington Capitals acquiring D Scott Hannan from the Colorado Avalanche. In return for the veteran stay-at-home blueliner the Avs received Tomas Fleischmann one of the top young talents on the Caps’ roster (51 points in 69 games in 2009-10). That’s an NHL-ready contributor who has been a point-per-game player in his 12 games with Colorado.

As their career stats indicate, by any points-based comparison Wisniewski (.41 points per game in 286 games) is a better asset than Hannan (.23 ppg in 788 games). And Wisniewski seems to be flourishing with all of the power play time he’s received, already posting a career-best in the power-play points department. Such offensive skills have traditionally improved the value of a player on the trade market, so maybe Wisniewski's defensive shortcomings sapped his stock.

Defensive metrics are tricky to pin down and seldom tell an accurate story, but Wisniewski’s +/- was a very suspect minus-18. Pretty wretched. But considering he spent 70 more minutes on the ice than the next closest Islander and his team allowed 3.3 goals per game, while scoring just 2.3, that’s not as terrible as it could be. There are four other skaters and a goalie out there with him after all. For his career, Wisniewski’s +/- stands at plus-1, a figure that stood at plus-19 before he joined the Islanders.

Both Wisniewski and Hannan have contracts expiring after this season (as does Fleishmann’s) but Wisniewski is younger and any team acquiring him will have extra time to ink him to an extension, if they so choose (and with injured D Andrei Markov approaching free agency as well, that makes some sense for the Habs).

Compared to the Hannan trade it sure seems like the Isles got the short end of the deal, but that’s just one example. Take it back to last season’s trade deadline and the picture doesn’t get much better.

Last season, the Isles’ Andy Sutton was dealt for a second-rounder. And while the Islanders may have thought they’d stick to that price range for their top tradeable D commodity this season, it seems the Isles undersold last season as well. Other D-men switching teams at the trade deadline included Joe Corvo and Lubomir Visnovsky. Corvo netted Brian Pothier, a prospect and a pick from the Caps, while Visnovsky (and a sixth-rounder) returned Ryan Whitney.

While the Isles acquired Wisniewski for a conditional third-round pick in July, it certainly seems that D-men of Wisniewski’s caliber have yielded NHL-ready contributors in the recent past, which is obviously more than the Islanders received for him yesterday. But a rebuilding team doesn’t necessarily want talent ready to contribute immediately, more or less a pending free agent like Fleischmann, so draft picks make sense. But it’s tough to draw a conclusion until we know the value of a second-round pick. So exactly what is a second-round pick worth?

Last season, Alvin Chang of ESPN’s NHL Draft Blog studied that topic after we noticed second-rounders were common coin at the trade deadline.

While the Draft Blog is part of ESPN’s Insider package and you may not be able to see it in full, he found that since 1996 second-round picks have a 59-percent chance of reaching the NHL and a 25.8-percent chance of playing more than 82 games. Fifth-rounders? A 9.9-percent chance of playing 82 games in the league.

Draft picks are all well and good for rebuilding teams, but the Islanders essentially just traded their biggest chip for two lotto tickets with a 1-in-4 and 1-in-10 chance of winning a player that might give them equal production to Wisniewski. On average since 1996, defensemen taken in the second round average 20.9 points per season, forwards 31.9. Both totals are lower than what Wisniewski puts up on an annual basis. The Islanders would have to hit on both picks in order to better his production levels.

GMs have their own math for how they value picks, and I’m no GM, but from our math, this deal doesn’t add up for the Islanders.

The New York Islanders announced late Thursday morning that rookie winger Nino Niederreiter, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2010 entry draft, would be returned to his WHL team, the Portland Winterhawks. The announcement comes just after Niederreiter skated in his ninth NHL game Wednesday night, a 5-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

Under league rules, NHL teams are allowed a nine-game sample run with junior players taken in the previous draft. After that time, the team can either return the player to his junior team or keep him on the NHL roster and start the clock on the player's entry-level contract. By returning Niederreiter to the WHL, the top prospect's deal will not expire until after the 2013-14 season.

The Swiss forward, known by the nickname El Niño, was solid but didn't have a tremendous impact during the Islanders' hot start to the season. Over the nine games he recorded just one goal and one assist while averaging 13:36 of ice time, primarily skating on the third line alongside Doug Weight. Against the Canadiens he failed to record a shot on goal in 14:28 of action.

Many believe the future will be bright for Niederreiter, who turned heads as the top-scorer of the Swiss team at the 2010 World Junior Championships. He was the NHL's youngest player at the start of the season and, at 18 years and 31 days, was the fifth-youngest to play in an NHL game since the 1987-88 season.

The move appears to be a smart one on several levels. First, Niederreiter will see much more ice time with the Winterhawks than the Isles. Even if he's not facing the same level of competition, there's only so much he can grow spending 47 minutes on the bench each night. Second, the Islanders will now enjoy Niederreiter's services when some of their more advanced prospects -- like former No. 1 pick John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey -- are more seasoned and ready to form the core of a true playoff contender. Even if the Islanders do overcome an array of injuries to key players like Okposo and D Mark Streit to crash the postseason party this season, it's unlikely Niederreiter would have been the missing ingredient given the early returns.

The Isles clash with the Canadiens in Montreal tonight. Here are three keys to keep an eye on.

Effort Level

While the Islanders remain an early-season surprise, head coach Scott Gordon hasn’t been pleased with a perceived diminished level of energy in recent games. As reported on the team’s site:

“We didn’t come close to playing the last four games with the same kind of oomph that we had in the first three.”

New York’s hot start has largely been predicated by an ethic of hard work for 60 minutes. They’ve also enjoyed a bit of an underdog edge as some teams appear to have mistaken the Isles for an easy two points and come out flatfooted. This team isn’t absent talent, but it doesn’t have the stars to coast and still escape with two points like Eastern Conference powers Washington and Pittsburgh.

The Habs have started strong as well and will likely be on guard on their home ice. The Isles are going to have to be ready to go all out whenever they jump over the boards.

El Nino

This could be Nino Niederreiter’s last game with the Islanders this season. After tonight his trial run comes to an end and GM Garth Snow will have to decide whether to return him to his junior team or keep him with the big club and use up a year of his entry-level contract.

As discussed previously, the rookie has been solid, but not spectacular to date. He may have to leave a more lasting impression tonight in order to convince Snow he should stick around.

Special Teams

The Islanders’ power play has been clicking percentage wise (26.2 percent) but part of that has been padded with several 5-on-3 goals. Meanwhile, the Habs’ power-play unit is scuffling something fierce, converting just 2 of 29 chances with the man-advantage.

Montreal’s power play was one of the league’s best units last season, so they’re more than due for a big breakout to start an upward trend. The Islanders will have to be extra disciplined on the PK against the PPG-starved Habs. Of course, the best solution is to stay out of the box altogether.

Morning Links

• Here’s the preview from Lighthouse Hockey.
• And a look at the life of Frans Nielsen from Chris Botta.
• At Fanhouse, Botta looks at the decisions facing the Islanders and other teams with decisions to make regarding draft pick decisions.

On Thursday night the Devils smoked the Canadiens. It was just the second win of the season for the Devils. Ironically, both wins were by shutout and both on the road.

So does that mean that the Devils have turned the corner and are ready to go on a run?

Let's hold our horses. First of all, they have been awful at "The Rock" with a record 0-3-1 in 4 games and have scored just 7 goals.

First up this weekend is the Sabres at home. Johan Hedberg will make his Devils debut after 7 straight starts by Martin Brodeur. Why Hedberg on Saturday? Easy. John MacLean wants to give his backup a shot with 3 games in 4 nights and there is no way Brodeur will miss Sunday's game -- a date with the Rangers at MSG.

Both oponents this weekend have gotten off to tough starts. Buffalo is 2-4-1 and the Rangers are 2-2-1 losing their first two at home.

Players to watch for the Devils:

• Zach Parise -- He scored just his second goal of the year against Montreal. Let's see if that got Zach going.
• Andy Greene -- In Thursday's win, he blocked 8 shots. Can he continue that as we wait for Anton Volchenkov to come back from injury?
• Johan Hedberg - He makes 1 million this season with a 1.5 million cap hit. Everyone talks about how he'll play more this season. But he has to play well. His first game Saturday will tell us when his next start will be.