NHL

Devils need defensive help

The Devils expect left wing Patrik Elias, their all-time record scorer, to practice with the team for the first time this season today. But even with an addition of that magnitude, defense is where they really need help these days.

It’s not the reason Lou Lamoriello is going into the Hockey Hall of Fame next week, but the Devils might really be in the soup if their general manager hadn’t dealt Cam Janssen for Bryce Salvador, the last good trade he’s made.

Even before Paul Martin and now Johnny Oduya went out of the Devils’ defense, Salvador was playing about as well as any on their backline this season. Now, even more, they count on him, and count their lucky stars.

Salvador is one of the main four defensemen, along with Colin White, Mike Mottau and Andy Greene, holding the fort in the absences of Martin and Oduya — a second-rounder in White, unheralded free agents in Mottau and Greene, and the swag from a steal in Salvador.

So when Salvador twisted his ankle in a rut and hobbled back to the bench during Saturday’s 2-1 shootout victory in Tampa, the entire organization cringed.

“I said, ‘Not another one,’ ” Jacqes Lemaire recalled. “That was bad.”

In short order, though, Salvador was back on the ice, playing through his pain.

He’s plays a stay-at-home game, doesn’t much care for playing the right side, hits people, and is a fearsome fighter when annoyed — an old-time defenseman in the new NHL.

The Devils were trying to wrangle Barret Jackman from the Blues at the trade deadline, Feb. 26, 2008. St. Louis wanted to keep Jackman and signed him at the 11th hour, then rented Salvador to the Devils as an upcoming unrestricted before he left for no return.

“St. Louis and I couldn’t really come to a deal, and I kind of wanted a change, and the chance to test the free agent market,” Salvador said.

With St. Louis native Janssen a natural happy story for the Blues, Lamoriello cashed in an asset who wouldn’t have such value anywhere else. Janssen is an agitator of limited ice-time and sometimes even, non-inclusion, and the Devils obtained a top-four defenseman for him. It’s the stuff general managers dream about.

Then, lo and behold, a Devils defenseman actually chose to remain in New Jersey, signing back with the Devils rather that leave.

Salvador said he wasn’t insulted at being traded for Janssen.

“Personally, I never really looked at it that way,” Salvador said. “I looked at it as an opportunity. You can really get yourself bogged down if you think like that.

“My game is improving. I have a lot of responsibility now, and when you have that, you have to elevate your game to meet those minutes,” Salvador said. “When you’re playing 25 minutes, you have to change a little bit. You can’t go running around, hitting everything that moves. But I still have to play with a physical presence.”

Every time he makes the strong defensive plays that are more frequent these days, the Devils can smile at how they landed him, almost the way they brought in Oduya, Greene, Mottau and Cory Murphy.

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The Devils sent Matt Halischuk to Lowell yesterday after he sat out Saturday’s victory in Tampa. . . . The bid for his record-tying 103rd career shutout ended Saturday on the bounce of a puck, when a Steve Stamkos shot caromed in off Jamie Langenbrunner. “That tells you how hard it is to get a shutout,” said Martin Brodeur, still one behind Terry Sawchuk’s 39-year NHL record. . . . The Devils’ 7-0 road start is tied for second longest in NHL history, behind the 10 straight road triumphs that opened the Sabres’ 2006-07 season.