After an off-day Wednesday to rest and recover, the team hit the ice Thursday for practice at Prudential Center. In their practice, the Devils refocused for a stretch of games where they'll play six of their next seven at home. The Devils have a 4-11-2 record at home and consistently perform better on the road with a 9-5-3 record.
"It was a long road trip, I think it was the end of six games in nine nights," said Devils forward Kyle Palmieri on the days off following the team's longest road trip of the season. "Went back out there (Thursday) and worked on some things that coach saw as mistakes and weakness and what went wrong in Boston the other night. We just have got to reset and looking forward to tomorrow."
"I really thought our 5-on-5 play got away from us on the defensive side in the Boston game," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. "And the third period, especially where we didn't get to our spots, we didn't defend as well as we've been defending, and it really affected us trying to put that game away or at least trying to get two points from the game. So the meeting we had as a team before practice dealt with our defensive structure. A couple of the drills dealt with that. We're just going to continue day by day.
"Our power play went out early, before practice, and we got about 10 minutes of reps again with both units and we're going to continue to do that daily."
The Devils return to the ice Friday and Sunday to host the Washington Capitals at Prudential Center.
