Zach Parise out for three months!

Zach Parise underwent exploratory surgery and the findings were a mixed bag.

The good news was an injured meniscus in his knee,which had just a small tear and after repair,his knee should be far stronger over the long term.
The bad news is that Parise will miss the next three months of action and deals the offensively challenged Devils a devastating blow in their attempt to turn things around after a horrific start.
It was pretty clear to most observers that something was wrong with Parise as his speed seemed a bit down and he was not at one hundred percent.

This is a huge blow to the already struggling Devils,who have dropped two games in a row in losing to Los Angeles 3-1 and Vancouver 3-0 before finishing their longest road trip of the season tonight in Chicago.
Considering the issues on this team as a whole and I hesitate to make a statement such as this when you consider the point in the season that the Devils are in,but this may be a lost season.
That may not be an entirely bad thing either as sometimes in sports,a strong organization that has a fluke bad season can add an impact player that they rarely have the opportunity to add and keep themselves at the top for even longer.
The Devils could be in just that situation right now-everything that can go wrong does and the Devils wind up in a position that they would never dream of being in for the 2011 draft.
That is way down the road yet,but keep that in mind as the season progresses.

Time for a few notes from the last few days as I listened to the Kings loss via XM and was able to watch the defeat to the Canucks.

Brad Mills was added to the roster after the Parise injury.
Mills is a Tim Sestito type and nothing that will turn the season around,but is quite scrappy as he dropped the gloves against the Canucks Tanner Glass in what was a good one.

Jacob Josefson has a hand injury,but unlike the one suffered by Matt Corrente,this one looks to keep the rookie out for six to eight weeks.
Josefson tore a ligament in the hand against the Kings.

Anton Volchenkov looks to be returning to the lineup on Friday against the Rangers.Volchenkov's physical play and leadership has been sorely missed with the Devils having to play three rookies among their defense corps.

I have really liked what Matt Taormina has done this season,but he had a bad game against the Canucks as rookie mistakes led to the first two Vancouver goals.
His slip behind the net that caused him to lose the puck and a pass later gave the Canucks one goal and his passive play around the net allowed Ryan Kesler an easy path to another goal off a wild pass by Mason Raymond.

Plan to be back later with a cleaning of the inbox and maybe a look at the results from last nights election....