Onward and Upwards | 10 TAKEAWAYS

It couldn’t last forever.

After a tough stretch in the loss column of the standings, the Devils are moving on and moving upwards with their season after the win in Ottawa on Tuesday night.

It wasn’t flashy, and it wasn’t perfect, but it looked like the Devils again. Structured. Competitive. It took a while to get there, and it took a “grindy game,” as Nico Hischier called it, to finally get out of the slump. But as the captain put it, “those count, too.”

More than that, they matter. With the calendar turning and the pace of the season only speeding up, it felt like the right moment and the right type of game, to draw a line, turn the page, and start pushing ahead with something that feels familiar again.

Because this year, the schedule comes at you fast and furious and picks up next with three games in four days.

It's relentless, just as the Devils play should be.

Now, let's check in from the past week in this edition of 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

1.

It sounds like part of the shift came before the puck dropped in Boston. Connor Brown spoke about a team meeting ahead of that game, one where the group tried to wash away the emotions and the weight that had built up over the course of a lengthy losing streak. At that point, it wasn’t about systems or details as much as resetting mentally, clearing the air, and getting everyone pulling in the same direction again.

Whatever was said behind closed doors stayed there, but its impact didn’t. There’s been a noticeable lightness to the way the Devils have played since, even if it's just two games, with a sharper focus, a little more trust in their game, and a willingness to stay patient when things don’t come easily. Sometimes, that’s all it takes to start moving forward again.

2.

Sheldon Keefe called the conversations between players and between the coaches themselves “honest” before the Boston game. That mattered. It wasn’t just the room looking after itself; it was everyone involved owning their piece of it.

That afternoon, after those discussions, I spoke with Keefe, and he didn’t deflect away from it. He put it squarely on his own shoulders. As the coach, he said, it was his responsibility to get the group into the right mindset; his challenge, in that moment, was to help them reset and regain trust in their game.

"It's the great challenge, it starts to mount and stacks up, and it becomes heavy," Keefe said before the game in Boston. "That’s the messaging. It’s my job as the coach is to help clear the guys minds and just get out and focus. Don’t get too consumed with the end-result, whether thats (scoring) a goal or winning the hockey game. We just need the good process.”

And you could see it almost immediately in Boston. The result didn’t come, but the shift did. The Devils stopped forcing plays that weren’t there and started letting the game come to them. As Connor Brown described it, they quit trying to make something out of nothing. That doesn’t always show up on the scoreboard right away, but it usually shows up in wins soon after, like in Ottawa.

“Without a doubt, we had really good discussions leading up to the Boston game, even though it was a back-to-back, and those sorts of things I thought we were able to have some good, honest discussions as players and as coaches, and the group together," Keefe said. "I thought the mindset was right in Boston. Sometimes, when you’re going through it like that, you don’t get the result quite right away but you can kind of see it and feel it. I think the mindset of the team has been right."

Now, they build on it.

3.

I wanted to thank everyone for the kind words about all the Brenden Dillon, 1000^th game coverage we had. Brenden is really an easy person to want to go the extra mile for and there were things that were left on the cutting room floor that didn’t make it into the Big Read and other coverage, so I thought I would share some of that here.

If you read the Big Read, you’ll know that Nate Schmidt, Dillon’s teammate in Winnipeg, gave Brenden the nickname “Canadian Thor”. You can read about that here.

Anyways, when I was chatting with Brett Pesce about Brenden, I asked him if he had a nickname other than ‘Dilly’ for him. Brett thought for a bit, and first only came up with ‘Dilly’, and then I told him about the Canadian Thor moniker.

Brett Pesce, when pressed that he must have another nickname other than ‘Dilly’, said, “Oh, I also call him ‘Greek God’.”

4.

Something that also got left out of the story (we were already up to 5000 words) was the way Brenden Dillon takes the time to connect even with the media. It's not always an easy relationship between player and media. Imagine how every day, at the end of your work day, you're asked to stand in front of the public and self-evaluate, be asked questions about your performance that day, especially when you've had a bad day at the office. It's such a unique relationship, and sometimes there can be animosity or hostility between the two sides.

But you don’t get that, ever, with Brenden Dillon. While I was doing my research and interviews in preparation for his 1,000th game, I reached out to some media members to get their impressions on working with Brenden, and to no one’s surprise, the responses were unanimous.

In the article about Dillon, I talked a lot about how his path has woven him through so many other NHL players’ stories, but that’s also true of the media. As soon as he was traded to New Jersey, I got a text from Jamie Thomas about how lucky I was to start working with Dillon. It was the same message Thomas had received from a fellow colleague, Dan Murphy, when Dillon joined the Winnipeg Jets. It’s pretty amazing to see how universally loved Brenden is, and it’s genuine.

"From the first day until he left, he was a tremendous example of class," Thomas shared. "Win or lose, he treated all of us very well. If you asked him for some of his time, it was no problem and he was very thoughtful in his answers. Even since he left, I’ve been able to text him with some random questions, and he always gets back to me."

5.

What sticks out too is the level of emotion that Dillon carries with him. I felt terrible for making him cry - though they were happy tears - in front of the camera on the morning of his 1000th NHL game. But those raw emotions aren't just for himself. As Thomas explained, he's like that too, about the tough times his own teammates go through.

"I always admired Dilly for his friendship with Ville Heinola, one of the Jets' top prospects during Dillon’s time here," Thomas shared. "The two were paired together during training camp and Ville always spoke highly of Dillon. Heinola was on the cusp of making the Jets out of training camp but broke his ankle during the final preseason game which was devastating. Dillon spoke after the game and you could see he was just as crushed that Ville was going to miss out on a huge opportunity as Heinola was. I’ll never forget that."

The love and care he feels toward his teammates and taking players under his wings is clearly important to him. We see that directly with Luke Hughes here in Jersey, with Luke calling Dillon one of his close friends, despite the age gap.

Brett Pesce, who sits between Luke and Brenden in the Devils locker room, is also part of that makeup, with Brett saying that Luke keeps them both young.

"I think me and (Dillon), we both can attest to this," Pesce said, "We talk about how we are young kids at heart, I think that's why we get along with Luke so well. Because sometimes we feel like we're still 22, we kind of act like it sometimes too!"

6.

I checked in with Matt Loughlin on some of his new Icebreakers from this season where he asks the players non-hockey questions and is aired during the game day radio broadcasts. If you haven’t heard them, I highly suggest you make sure to tune in, because you get to learn some wild things sometimes about your favorite players.

Kind of like what we found out about Jonas Siegenthaler last week:

One of the questions that Matt asked Jonas was what would three items be on his bucket list… and let me tell you, the answer he gave, I did not see coming.

“I’d love to own a nice home back home (in Switzerland) and own a farm with cows. That’s one of my dreams.”

7.

Another question was whether he’d like to either know how to play 10 instruments or be able to speak 10 languages.

Turns out, Jonas is almost halfway to the latter already. He speaks English, of course, Swiss-German, German, a bit of French (though he said he understands it better than he speaks it) and he also speaks Thai.

That’s mighty impressive.

8.

Sheldon Keefe called Jacob Markstrom ‘the greatest competitor that we have’.

And he showed it too against Ottawa, routinely getting run over by the Senators, with only one goaltender interference call. You could see the pressure mounting in Markstrom, like those wires were about to cross (see: the slash), but Keefe mentioned something really interesting about Markstrom and those moments:

The harder you take runs at Markstrom, the more competitive he gets.

“You start going hard to the net like that, he’s going to be that much more engaged in the game and competing. I thought it was great, the way he stood his ground in those moments, but also just dug in and helped will our team to getting the two points.”

His third period was incredible, facing, and stopping, 18 shots against the Senators. That’s sometimes more shots than he sees in an entire game.

9.

How good was the Glass line against the Senators? Not only were they one the ice scoring three goals, but they out shot Ottawa 7-1 when they were on the ice.

Also, how good is this picture? Legitimately looks like he's riding a broomstick.

10.

This evening, Ray Shero will be posthumously inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. I so wish he could be here to see himself recognized for his endless work and all that he has given to our amazing game. He would probably hate it, being the center of attention and appreciation like that, but I also know it would have meant the world to him.

His handprints are all over our hockey world, both on the ice and off the ice.

He's the man that gave his blessing to hire me in New Jersey. He changed my life and put the stamp of approval on offering me my dream job.

I miss him every single day, as do so many of us. He was, and is, such a special person, who cared deeply for others and those in his orbit. Everything was about setting up the next person for success. He could be tough, but in the most loving way, because he wanted you to reach your full potential. He was going to make sure you would.

And he had a heart of gold.

I truly, truly miss him every day.

But congratulations to you, Rejean (yes, that's his full first name!). I just wish you were here to see it.