New Jersey Devils forward Ondrej Palat did not play in yesterday's loss to the Florida Panthers and was absent from today's practice.
New Jersey Devils forward Ondrej Palat did not play in yesterday's loss to the Florida Panthers and was absent from today's practice.
The Devils lost their third straight game last night against the Panthers. The Panthers put four goals past Akira Schmid but the Devils struggled to generate offence all game finishing with just 24 shots.
The Devils play the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and at the moment Palat's availability for the game is unknown.
The 32-year-old's injury comes at an awful time. Of course, it's never a good time for a player to get hurt but the Devils are going through a tough stretch of games and at an important time. With many trade rumours circulating and their coach being fired, they need veteran leadership, which was one of the reasons why the Devils signed Palat.
The Devils sit eight points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wild card spot and eight points of the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan division. Three teams sit ahead of the Devils in the race for the playoffs. Missing the veteran presence of a player who has won two Stanley Cups and has been to four Stanley Cup finals makes attempting to turn the season around that much more difficult.
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