NEWARK—The New Jersey Devils are finally back home after a tough 1-4-1 road trip over the last few weeks. Ever since returning from the holiday break, the Devils haven’t been the same team we saw go into Christmas at a scorching hot pace. Some regression to the mean was to be expected, but plenty of points were left on the table out west and in Manhattan. So, what was the biggest challenge amid this tough stretch of games for the Devils?
The good news is, as opposed to some divided locker rooms we’re currently witnessing in the league today, the stretch of games has only brought the group closer to each other.
“We’ve just got to continue to stick together, you know? Not play the blame game or get down on one another, which has been great,” Brenden Dillon explained to New Jersey Hockey Now. “We’ve still been positive in here, which has been nice. We’ve still got a lot of runway here where we’ve got to continue to get better.
“You see teams around the league go through losing streaks, and when you start making it all, ‘Oh it’s this guy or that guy,’ or ‘it’s this reason or that reason.’ I mean, we just got to play better. And when I say play better, that’s just trust what has worked for us. And when you trust it, you know we’re probably gonna have a good chance of having success.”
After speaking with a handful of different players and the head coach, we asked them all one simple question.
“What’s been the biggest challenge for the group to overcome amid this tough stretch?”
The responses were all a little different, however, it all pointed back to the same answer.
What’s the one thing all successful teams in the NHL have in common?
Structure.
When head coach Sheldon Keefe came in, the structure was tweaked. Before, the Devils were high-skill and speed on the rush. Their best defense was a good offense. Now, they’re still that team, but their structure requires much more offensive zone puck possession to cycle the puck, and aggressive defending. They haven’t necessarily gotten back to that structure in the last few weeks.
“Sticking with it is a perfect example of whether you’ve lost five in a row or won five in a row,” Dillon explained to NJHN. “You’re usually maybe tinkering a few things. But for the most part, your structure is your structure. That’s what we’ve done from day one at training camp. We’ve seen black and white when it works. And when it doesn’t, it’s pretty crystal clear, too.”
Structure has been a key focus of Keefe’s ever since arriving in New Jersey. That’s not to say it wasn’t a focus before, but now it’s about being able to maintain that structure, while thinking and seeing the game at a high level.
It’s a mentally taxing idea, having to play and think at such high speeds not only in 82 games, but to replicate that in practice on a daily basis.
So has the mentality faltered?
“I don’t think the mentality of it has changed much,” Stefan Noesen explained to NJHN. “We know what we’ve got in here. We’re you know we’re a great team. But, we are building, We have things we got to learn. This team, we didn’t make playoffs last year, right? So, you still gotta learn how to win and figure things out and be done a good job at it so far this year, and we just got to keep building.”
The Devils are a good mix of young talent and veterans who have a winning pedigree.
It was one of the goals general manager Tom Fitzgerald had on his checklist this summer when constructing his roster after last season’s disappointment.
As a veteran, part of the job is to keep the young guys back on track. So what are they telling them?
“Just not to beat ourselves,” Dillon said to NJHN. “It doesn’t matter if [the team is] 32nd in the league or first, there’s so much parity and teams are so good. The young players in this league, they can all score. So, all it takes is one mistake or one error, and it’s in the back of your net. To play from behind, to have to rely on a goal, is not a recipe for success. I think for our team, we’re always learning. We’ve still got a lot of young players. Even for guys like myself, there’s something new coming up and going on in the league every year.”
The Devils’ head coach is no maker of excuses. His view on the Devils’ biggest challenge to overcome lately has to do with the hand they’ve been dealt, recently.
“I would say just the schedule,” Keefe explained to NJHN. “As you’re not playing well, you don’t really have the practice time or the recovery time. You’re traveling around. And you know, when you come out of Christmas break, you’re not going to feel your best. But, you don’t really have time to get your feet under you and really kind of solidify yourself. I think that’s been the greatest challenge, which is, again, why we took yesterday off as a chance to just sort of recover. To me, that’s been the biggest challenge.”
Keefe recognizes the fact that the Devils haven’t played to their full potential, hence their 1-4-1 record. He went on to explain that due to the outside factors, the Devils haven’t necessarily been detail oriented, which has put some kinks in the armor of their structure.
The schedule isn’t an excuse to Keefe, however. Instead, it’s an obstacle his team needs to overcome. Back on home ice, the expectation is to see that structure return against a tough opponent in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“When you have seen it, and you played so well for the stretch of time like we did in this building in particular leading up to Christmas, you know what it’s supposed to look like and what you’re capable of,” Keefe continued. “So when it slips a little bit, you got to look to some other factors. You don’t want to make excuses, but it’s certainly a hard one to ignore, and there are some realities in the schedule. In fact, this Tampa team also had a difficult time out in California coming out of Christmas.
“There are things like that happen over the course of 82 games that, from the outsiders’ perspective, perhaps looks frustrating or can be frustrating, and that’s understandable. But, on the inside, sometimes there are some circumstances that make it hard. We can only hang on to that for so long, though. We’ve got to get ourselves back to it. And I expect better here today, both being in this building and after a little bit more time to recover.”
Certainly, the Devils are viewed as a young team who have a winning window that is just opening. However, there’s a sense of maturation from within the Devils’ locker room. Jack Hughes exemplified that when he took responsibility for the Devils’ tough overtime in New York on Thursday. And on Saturday morning, Paul Cotter explained the Devils’ recent play is more of an opportunity than anything else.
“I don’t know if there’s been a challenge,” Cotter contemplated to NJHN. “Tough road trip, yes, but I think that’s good for us. We started off really hot and had a pretty good start. But, I think it’s important to go through things like that, a little stretch of some losses and battle some adversity and stuff. So, I think it’s good for us. I think we’re now starting to bounce back. Tough over time loss [against the New York Rangers], but we still get a point out of that. We’re back home now after a long one. So hopefully that’s over with, and if we can move past this on a positive note and take that little drought as a learning experience, then I think we should be alright.”
For more Devils news, visit New Jersey Hockey Now, subscribe to our YouTube and like our Facebook page.
Follow us on :
@NJDHockeyNow, @JamesNicholsNHL, @NickNatale10
And on Threads:
