Dwayne Roloson: No hard feelings about not playing Saturday

Roloson said he was as disappointed as he'd normally have been to not play on Saturday had Rick DiPietro been healthy and gotten the nod. There was no anger at being passed over for Nathan Lawson to make his first NHL start in the 4-3 shootout loss to the Coyotes.

"You can't worry about things you can't control, and (who starts) is out of my control," Roloson said today. "Someone else got the opportunity and it was his first game. I had to do whatever I could to help him and help the team."

That meant talking to Lawson during TV timeouts and between periods, giving the 27-year-old rookie as many pointers and tendencies of opponents as Roloson could give.

"Some guys like to have feedback. Nate's a pretty relaxed guy, so he wanted to hear from me, to talk whenever he could," Roloson said. "Going into the shootout was tough, because you want to tell him about certain guys and what they like to do, but then if they don't do it, you didn't exactly help. It's tough when you haven't seen guys before."

Roloson has played only twice in the last 18 days. He's certain to get at least one of the upcoming games tomorrow and Thursday, possibly both with DiPietro possibly headed to injured reserve with swelling in his knee.

"It affects everyone that doesn't play for a while," Roloson said of the inactivity over the last three weeks. "You just do stuff in practice to simulate games, and I've been working with Sudsy (goaltending consultant Sudarshan Maharaj) and Mike (Dunham, goaltending coach) whenever they're here."

Roloson also hasn't won since Oct. 18, going 0-11-1 since.

"It's not like we've been winning games," Jack Capuano said. "We have to figure out who gives us the best chance to win every night."