Schneider out with lower-body injury for Devils

BOSTON – The news for the New Jersey Devils on Friday was that Martin Brodeur would get the start against the Boston Bruins on Saturday after three straight starts for Cory Schneider.

The Devils revealed Saturday there was more to that decision than a desire to get Brodeur into his first game since Oct. 17. Schneider is out with a lower-body injury and didn't even make the trip to his hometown. The projection for his return is up in the air.

"I don't know the answer to that. I think it's short-term, but I don't know," coach Peter DeBoer said after his team's morning skate.

Schneider, in his first season with the Devils, has a 1-3-2 record, 2.14 goals-against average and .915 save percentage so far. Brodeur in 0-2-2 with a 3.40 GAA and .865 save percentage. DeBoer said he told Brodeur after the Devils' game against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday to get ready to face the Bruins. But the coach wasn't sure when Schneider was injured.

"I believe that, I think, I don't have the exact story on it. He might've been dealing with a little bit of something prior to [Thursday]," DeBoer said. "But definitely Thursday's game was the game where the next morning he really felt that."

The Devils have used the goalie roster exception to summon Keith Kinkaid from Albany of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis to back up Brodeur.

The Bruins' skated again without forward Loui Eriksson, who is out with a concussion since he was hit by John Scott of the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday. Bruins coach Claude Julien said Eriksson is still in the early, unpredictable stages of recovery.

"Loui's doing okay I guess for a guy who suffered a concussion," Julien said. "It's the same thing you know, where you have a good day, you have a less of a good day, and it's early on but we're just, like always, you keep your fingers crossed that it's going to get better sooner than later for his sake."

Here are the projected lineups for the Bruins and Devils:

BRUINS

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Jarome Iginla

Reilly Smith – Patrice Bergeron – Brad Marchand

Carl Soderberg – Chris Kelly – Jordan Caron

Daniel Paille – Gregory Campbell – Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara – Johnny Boychuk

Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton

Torey Krug – Adam McQuaid

Tuukka Rask

Chad Johnson

Scratched: Matt Bartkowski

Injured: Loui Eriksson (concussion)

DEVILS

Patrik Elias – Andrei Loktionov – Jaromir Jagr

Rostislav Olesz – Adam Henrique – Michael Ryder

Dainius Zubrus – Travis Zajac – Damien Brunner

Ryan Carter – Stephen Gionta – Steve Bernier

Andy Greene – Mark Fayne

Eric Gelinas-Adam Larsson

Anton Volchenkov-Marek Zidlicky

Martin Brodeur

Keith Kinkaid

Injured: Cory Schneider (lower-body), Ryane Clowe

Scratched: Mattias Tedenby, Peter Harrold, Jacob Josefson