James Nichols
NEWARK — The start of the 2024-25 season hasn’t exactly gotten off to the start that the New Jersey Devils and their fans would have hoped. Off to a 5-4-2 record through 11 games, there have certainly been inconsistencies in their lineup. They expect better of themselves, but the Devils aren’t ignorant to the fact that they’ve had very little time to recharge the batteries.
“Listen, the League is hard. Tonight was our ninth game in the last 16 days,” head coach Sheldon Keefe explained after the game. “It’s a tough schedule … that’s almost unheard of.
“We looked like a team who hasn’t practiced much; we’ve had two practices in the last 16 days. All things considered, to see our team fight on the back to back, third game in four nights and make sure to get the point, those are all really encouraging.”
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The Devils got the day off on Saturday before their tilt against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. After morning skate, we got some perspective of what the players are feeling through 11 games.
The Devils’ season started real early. They left for Prague on Sept. 29th, played their first two regular season games on Oct. 4th and 5th, and then got back to work in the States on Oct. 10th.
The strange thing for the Devils about their schedule this year was that they already had a decent amount of miles on them before other teams even began their season.
“We’ve played a lot of hockey, man, it seems like game 40 with the travel to start the year, you know? Like, our fourth or fifth game was against Washington’s first game,” Brenden Dillon explained to New Jersey Hockey Now. “And then it doesn’t seem like we really had any days when we’ve been able to recharge the batteries.”
Keefe explained that the Devils hadn’t been able to have a legitimate practice on days when there is no game. There’s a significant difference when a team has a morning skate versus practice on a day where they’re not playing later that night.
For the Devils, they’re not making excuses. They know all teams in the NHL go through their own grind, but they’re looking forward to getting back to practice days when the schedule eases up.
“Every team is going through their grind of a schedule,” Dillon continued. “I think for us, are we super pumped with the start of the year? No, we expected us to have, you know, a bit of an adjustment period. We expect to be a good team. And we do know that we’re still having some growing pains that we’re going through and just trying to get everybody on the same page [in practice].”
After the Devils and Ducks face off Sunday night, New Jersey will hit the road for a three-game west-coast trip. The Devils will be away for six days, with three off days in between to perhaps catch up on some practice time.
“I think it’ll be good for us. For a Europe trip at the start of the year, or a Western, Canadian swing, you’re able to have some more time with the guys, getting to know your teammates, stuff like that,” Dillon explained. “With time in the hotel, you’re usually napping, sleeping. With how much we are traveling, as you said, with how the start to the year has been games wise. I think it’s gonna be beneficial.”
The Devils have already had three back-to-backs this season. They won’t have another one until they return home after their western trip, but they’ll still be relatively local, staying in the New York area as opposed to hopping on a plane on Nov. 9th against the New York Islanders.
Dillon explained as the schedule eases up on them a bit, they’re hoping to take advantage of other teams that have schedules that are ramping up.
“We’re gonna go play a bunch of tough teams. It’s nice that there aren’t any back-to-backs, which is great just with how many we’ve seemed to have had to start the year. But all in all, you know, teams aren’t gonna sit back and just say, ‘oh yeah, Devils have had a tough stretch. We’ll go easy on it tonight.’ If anything, it’s similar to us tonight. You know, we’ve got to take advantage of Anaheim on a back to back. We’ve got to take advantage of being in our home building So, we’ve just got to be sharp. Then the schedule is what it is.”
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