Zajac fine, Elias doing well says Devils' GM

New Jersey Devils' General Manager Lou Lamoriello had much to say on Wednesday - sharing injury news with beat reporters.

Perhaps the best news of all was that there is nothing wrong with ace centerman Travis Zajac after news broke that the 28 year old had missed practice, causing a bit of trepidation amongst Devils' faithful.

"Resting. That's all. No issues," Lamoriello quipped.

Lamoriello wasn't being that forthcoming, so when the subject of Zajac arose with Coach Pete DeBoer, he qualified the GM's statement. "Just a personal day.", he said.

Right. Do a little shopping, have lunch with some friends, maybe catch a movie - and, of course, cause wide-spread panic when beat writers notice he's absent from practice...besides, there's enough anxiety surrounding the status of left winger Patrik Elias, who has now missed three straight games with what the team is calling "General body soreness".

"Patty is going to be day to day before he gets on the ice.  He's doing extremely well, but all of it is still off-ice activity. Until he gets on the ice we won't really know what the time frame is. Is it a little longer? We hoped it would've been shorter, but quite frankly I think we're fortunate with the way it occurred that it isn't worse. I really believe that. I'm looking at it on the positive side of it that we know it's short term." - Lamoriello

Elias was injured on a hit from Pittsburgh's Tanner Glass on New Years' Eve and hasn't played since.  Originally it was feared that Elias had injured his head and/or neck, but it turns out the 37-year-old winger just doesn't heal as well as his younger version would have.

Elias is one of just a handful of Devils that is a consistent producer in the scoring column, joining the apparently ageless Jaromir Jagr atop New Jersey's stat sheet, trailing Jagr by 10 points despite missing 11 games thus far in the season.

The boss also shared updates on young centerman Jacob Josefson, who contracted some sort of virus on the team's trip to Buffalo, right winger Damien Brunner's knee injury and defenseman Peter Harrold's fractured foot.

http://www.sportsinjuryalert.com/2014/01/zajac-fine-elias-doing-well-says-devils.html