The Devils are suddenly facing decisions of wealth, on the ice, if not at the bank. They’re about to look formidable up front after 99 games of wandering in the wilderness.
Sometime this weekend, perhaps tomorrow on Scott Niedermayer Night when Dallas does Newark, or Saturday against the Canadiens in Montreal, they expect their top center, Travis Zajac to make his season debut.
Zajac has already missed 30 games following Achilles tendon surgery in August. Combined with the 69 of 70 games his usual playmate, Zach Parise, sat out to end last season, the Devils have been without their Jean Ratelle-Rod Gilbert partnership long enough to partly explain — if not excuse — last season’s missed playoffs, and this season’s stumbles.
Coach Pete DeBoer has already indicated he doesn’t plan to reunite them immediately, since rookie Adam Henrique is going from the strength to strength between Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk.
DeBoer has the luxury of breaking in Zajac gently coming off a major injury.
Henrique has worked wonders for the Devils, contributing at a decidedly un-Devilish pace with 12 points in his last 10 games.
They’re still without Jacob Josefson (collarbone) for at least another month, but their once-suspect center position will be strong anyway.
DeBoer will have the luxury of Henrique, Zajac, Patrik Elias, Ryan Carter and Tim Sestito in the middle, and could even shift Elias back to left wing.
Two top lines of, say, Parise-Henrique-Kovalchuk and Elias-Zajac-Dainius Zubrus/Petr Sykora might propel them back to the level they haven’t seen since Parise’s knee surgery last year. Or starting Zajac off as the third-line center, for say David Clarkson and Mattias Tedenby, might press foes unrelentingly. There are possible combinations galore, all worthy of interest, and DeBoer may use them all before the season’s over.
The acquisition of Kurtis Foster, combined with the coming return of Anton Volchenkov, gives Jersey depth on defense.
It also gives the Devils the chance to keep dialing back on Adam Larsson’s role, now that he’s hit the rookie wall.
They return home winners of four of their last five games, with the chance to start looking even better in the coming weeks.
They’ve avoided falling apart without Zajac. Now they can start their season.