BLOG: Grueling Schedule Ahead

The Devils canceled their previously scheduled practice on Wednesday afternoon, and for good reason.
The club has been forced to play four games in six nights every week for the past month. And now that window will get even tighter ahead.
"We're going into a segment now with six games in nine nights," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "It'll be a grueling test because most of (the players) aren't used to that."
And those six games come against playoff contenders Pittsburgh (three), Philadelphia (one) and Washington (two). The segment also features two back-to-back affairs and a four-game, three-city road trip.
As such, the coaching staff is doing its best to work through the days ahead.
"We're trying to balance ice time and see where the energy level goes," Ruff said.
The treacherous scheduling is a result of a COVID-19 outbreak among the organization in February that shut down play for 15 days. The Devils are now being forced to makeup those missed games, squeezing them into an already condensed 52-game schedule.
Managing fatigue - whether from play or the after effects of the virus - will be critical for the coaching staff.
"Our energy, our speed, our transition was definitely better in the first 10 games," Ruff said. "Can we blame that on the number of games that we have to play in a short period of time? That's what's hard to figure out. Is it fatigue? Or is it actually lingering from COVID where guys just haven't bounced back, they missed two weeks, they're not as strong as they were and all of a sudden, you're playing four games in six days?
"That's a hard one to try to determine. We just know that other teams are dealing with it, we're dealing with it the best we can. You just have to move on from game to game."