Haven't done this in a while but there is a some news to report on the injury side of things. The Devils have had some major injuries pop up over the course of this season with some minor ones in between - but it's not as bad as last season - thank goodness.

First some cleaning up:

Travis Zajac returned on Scott Niedermayer night on December 16th against the Stars. In his 5 games back - he's been getting mostly 3rd line minutes with Mattias Tedenby and David Clarkson. He played with Parise and Kovalchuk last game and nothing really happened. Suffice to say - he's playing like a player who just returned from a major injury.

Adam Larsson returned from his trip back home to Sweden over the holiday's and he feels refreshed. He spent Christmas with his family and attended his grandmothers funeral. For a young kid like him, I think this is just what he needed. His play was diminishing and he needed a mental break from his time in a new country on a new team with new players and people. He on;y missed two games and it will be nice to have the 4th overall pick back in the lineup.

More injuries and thoughts after the jump:

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Ladies and gentlemen of the In Lou We Trust reader base, I'm pleased to announced that SB Nation has released an upgraded version of their iPhone application today.  It's version 1.1 and it comes with plenty of new features.  Here's a summary of the updates for the free SB Nation iPhone applicatoin

• Comments load faster.
• The ability to jump to the next unread comment. (like when you hit 'Z' while reading comments)
  
• The ability to mark all comments as read. (like you do by hitting Shift+'A')
  
• The ability to respond to comments in-line (like the reply button)
• The ability to read FanPosts
• Comes with an in-app browser
• Compatible with iOS 5
• Colors as the same as the blog
  

Blog colors? That's right, now the app comes in the glorious colors of this blog, which are the same glorious colors of our favorite hockey team.  A picture of it is after the jump.

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SB Nation and TiqIQ have been working together in promoting what the aftermarket has to offer in ticket sales for various sporting events. You may have seen their modules on other SBN blogs like Bloody Elbow, for example. Thanks to that partnership, there is a contest running across the SBN Hockey network where you can win two free tickets to a regular season game in December/January.  I repeat: you can win two free tickets to a New Jersey Devils game.  Entering the contest is free and all it requires is Twitter and some prognostication.  Here are the instructions on how to enter:

The following picture explains the same but also provides an example:

Remember: whoever matches the player leading the Devils in penalties by the end of November and their PIM will win.  Yes, you must get both the player and minutes exactly right; being close without going over will just be that - close without going over.  The winner will be announced on December 9, 2011.   

After a long wait... it's finally here! The SBNation iPhone app has been approved by Apple, and is now available to download on your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This means if you have one of the three, you won't have to use the mobile site for In Lou We Trust or any of the other 300+ SBNation blogs if you have one of the three. The best part about it- it's free! You won't have to shell out any sacagaweas or any form of money.

If you wish to see the app in Action, you should refer to this post by John with a demo. Here's a short list of what you can do with the SBNation iPhone App:

• Get the latest, breaking sports news as it happens
• Customize your news with your favorite teams, sports and blogs (including In Lou We Trust)
• Get notified of updates to the stories you choose to follow on SBNation.com, regional sites, Baseball Nation, and MMA Nation
• Read and reply to comments

A quick FAQ on the App:

1) The SBN Tech Guys are working on an app for Android phones- it should be out at the end of the year. The SBN tech Guys want to see how the iPhone app works out and learn from their mistakes before making one for a phone the majority of people use. I do not know about any apps for Blackberry however.

2) Did I tell you it's free?

3) Comments are read and reply- there's no using "Z" to find new comments, but they will add that feature in with the newer updates.

4) You can log into the SBNation iPhone app with your current SBNation account, so you won't need to create a new account.

If you wish to download it, click on this link.

Thanks for reading- leave your feedback on the app in the comments if you've been able to try it.

Earlier this month, I put out a "help wanted" post looking for two new writing positions for In Lou We Trust.  I did this because of how successful the last time I did something like that.  Back in 2010, I wanted some assistance in writing on this very site, and I decided to to the community for help.  I was impressed with all of those who took a chance, and I decided to add three people on board: Matthew Ventolo, Tom Stivali, and Kevin Sellathamby.   They were readers like you, and now they are significant contributors to the growing hardcore Devils fan blog, In Lou We Trust.  It is indicative of the quality within this community.  Therefore, when I wanted more help this time, I went back to the community - back to you, the reader.   

Only this time, I was looking for two specific roles.  The first was to handle posting links on a daily basis, similar to the Caps Clips posted at Japers' Rink - the gold standard of links posts. The second was to record, store, and share scoring chance data for each Devils game in 2011-12.   Both require significant commitment.  The former requires plenty of awareness of what's going on and being able to post it every day.   The latter requires a lot of work in just collecting the data - watching games closely and trying to parse out who's on the ice and when a chance happened. That doesn't even go into storing and presenting the data sometime after the game.  I wasn't sure whether I'd get any interest for either position, so I left it open for readers to try and convince me to select them for the position. 

Once again, I'm blown away by the readership of In Lou We Trust. I've gotten interest from several people for both roles; honest, candid interest from both long-time readers and recent users to long-time users and readers.   I'd like to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to send me and email and express their interest regardless of who was selected.   Out of all the responses, I've added three new writers to the masthead from this effort. 

Rob Watson and Josh Weinstein (formerly jweinstein116) will be taking care of daily link posting for here on out.  They'll share the workload and provide posts filled with links so you can discuss them during the day.  In fact, they'll be hockey-related open threads; so you can discuss other Devils and hockey-related news and issues as well.  Rob came up with a good name for it already: Devils in the Details. You'll start seeing their work fairly soon, likely sometime next week.

C.J. Richey (formerly C.J.Richey121) will be undertaking the scoring chance effort.  He has shown me that he can perform the task, use Vic Ferrari's tools to present it, and has a good understanding of what's required to record them.  Since there's quite a bit of time before the season starts, you won't see too much of this from C.J. soon.  When the season does begin, the work he will do will yield valuable data and allow all of us at In Lou We Trust another way to analyze the Devils and their players. 

I formally welcome Rob, Josh, and C.J. to the site.  They're now on the masthead at the bottom; and best of luck to all three of them.  I am confident that they will help take In Lou We Trust to the proverbial next level during the 2011-12 season.  Please leave your welcomes in the comments.   As for hockey-related content, there will be another goal breakdown, this one comes from a suggestion by statusquo.

I want to take a little moment of your time to make you aware that SBNation is going to be coming out with a brand new mobile application (or app) for your iPhone soon.   This application will allow you to better read SBNation and your favorite blogs on the network - like this one - on your iPhone.  Here's a video that explains the upcoming app.

How much will this app cost you? Nothing.  It'll be free. 

The app has been submitted to Apple for review. Once approved, it'll be available in their app store in a few short weeks, and you'll be able to use this for your iPhone.  What about of those (like me) who does not have an iPhone? Don't worry. After this comes out, the fine people at SBN will be working on a SBNation app for the Android platform with all of the additions, fixes, and other lessons learned from the first iPhone release.  

If you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to see, please bring them up in the comments. Thanks for reading.