Thursday, January 05, 2012

Zajac Gets Extra Rest

On Wednesday night, the New Jersey Devils gave forward Travis Zajac the night off, as he continues to heal from an Achilles tendon injury, which he suffered earlier in the season. It appears that Zajac wasn't exactly 100% healthy upon his return and now the Devils and the player are currently figuring out what the pitfalls of coming back too soon are.

The Devils won't say that Zajac is actually hurt again, rather he is just in need of some extra rest through the season and they fully expect to be without him for small stretches through the remainder of the regular season.  He will play when he can, but the Devils will be extra cautious with him, because of the nature of his injury.

In eight games this season, Zajac has only been able to register 1 goal and 2 assists, which has made for a very disappointing season, but with the Devils hovering around a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, there is much more reason to make sure Zajac is healthy for March and April, rather than push him or shut him down at this point in the year.  Once the games start to mean a little bit more, I would imagine that we'll see more of Zajac, but for now, consider him day-to-day.

ImplicationsThis may provide Chris M. with enough reason to drop Zajac, when the Week Eighteen waiver draft hits, in only a few weeks from now. Chris has held onto Zajac, after mistakenly taking him with his injury, hoping he would fly back with a vengeance. Obviously, that hasn't happened and Chris' team has suffered because of it. Since the Week Nine waiver draft, Chris has dropped from 14th to 16th, but frankly, that's where he has been hovering all year long.

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