Following their 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, the New Jersey Devils held an optional morning skate on Saturday. Attendance was light. Just four players on New Jersey opted to skate. Among those were Vitek Vanecek, Akira Schmid, Max Willman, and for the first time since November 16th, Timo Meier.
Following Meier’s lower-body injury, head coach Lindy Ruff was adamant that Meier was just going to be out short-term. Depending on your definition of short-term, 11 days and counting might be pushing that envelope. Regardless, Meier hit the ice for what appeared to be a trial run on Saturday morning ahead of New Jersey’s tilt with the Buffalo Sabres.
The Devils’ power forward certainly didn’t take part in anything too extensive. Practice for No.28 was mostly just some light skating and getting some shots in on the Devils’ goaltenders.
However, Ruff explained that getting on the ice is a sign of progress.
“It’s a step on the way to recovery,” Ruff explained. “When you hit the ice, you’re moving along. It was great to see him back out there.”
The Devils were fortunate to avoid the injury bug last season. They lost Ondrej Palat for 10 weeks, however, that was their only real long-term key injury. Early in 2022-23, they haven’t been as fortunate. Currently, all of Meier, Nico Hischier, and Tomas Nosek are banged up. As of Friday night, Curtis Lazar joins that group of forwards who are injured.
Ruff disclosed on Saturday morning that Lazar is dealing with a lower-body injury. He isn’t ruled out of Saturday’s contest, however.
Ruff didn’t have a firm grasp on timelines for the remaining injured Devils forwards.
“I don’t really have a status,” Ruff said. “It was great to see Timo get on the ice. We’ve got some decisions to make on (these guys). (For) Timo, it’s the first time he’s hit the ice (in 10 days). We’ll look at all available options later on (today).”
As far as we know, the Devils haven’t made any recalls from the Utica Comets. If Lazar is unable to go and the rest of the injured Devils are unavailable, it’s likely we’ll see Willman draw back into the lineup. 11 forwards and seven defensemen is once again on the table. We’ll know more during warmups.
The Devils’ key injuries are slowly but surely healing. Hopefully, they can return sooner rather than later in order to help stop the bleeding that is New Jersey’s on-ice results.
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