The Two Captains
Leading the charge for the Kings this year is their 37-year-old captain, Anze Kopitar. In his 19th NHL season, Kopitar remains a threat every night and doesn't appear to be slowing down.
“A big part of it is so much of of his game is his brain,” Keefe said, asked about what makes Kopitar so successful. “Even as he gets older, he’s able to just play a very smart and efficient game. He’s still big, strong and heavy and he’s above you a lot and doesn’t give you anything very easy or free. You look at those guys, whether it’s him of (Alexander) Barkov, or even Nico (Hischier). These guys, their brains and just how they play and process the game defensively makes it really, really challenging and that’s to say nothing of their offensive abilities which is very good as well.”
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
The Devils have a Kopitar-esque player of their own leading their team as well. The Devils captain, Keefe said, is of course, his own player, but there are very important similarities between the two players games.
“I think that he has the skillset to do that, right from a young age," Keefe said of his captain. "I think he sees the game and processes it very well defensively. I mean, look at the job he’s done here just even the last two games. Head-to-head with Nathan MacKinnon, head-to-head with Auston Matthews, and both guys don’t get a point — at least in regulation in Matthews case, not five-on-five. That’s a credit to what Nico’s capable of and we want to lean on him for that and it’s because we believe he has the ability to really thrive in that role.”
'I Hate Losing'
Sheldon Keefe didn't mince his words when NHL.com's Mike Morrealle asked him this morning about despite some recent stretches of good hockey being played at Prudential Center, whether the home record of 7-6-3 is bothersome.
It's not just the home record, Keefe implied, any time they lose, it's bothersome.
“I hate losing. I don’t care where we are," he said. "I hate losing. We’ve lost too much, not just in this building. We’ve lost too much on the season, so is it bothersome? Yeah. I hate losing. Losing hurts way more than winning feels good."
But Keefe also stressed the importance of when there are losses, that doesn't mean you have to always be down on the teams performance, using the Toronto game as an example.
“That’s just kind of the reality of it," he said, "So yeah, it’s quite bothersome and we want to get on the right side of that, but we can only take each day as it comes and each challenge and each team as it comes. And while it is bothersome, you want to get the right results. You have to be process-driven and evaluate your team based on that. And there’s things I would like us to do better. I wish we could get a goal on our power play. I wish we didn’t give up a short-handed goal. I wish we found another one to get in at regulation at 5-on-5. I wish, whether it’s Jack and the clean shot five seconds into overtime or Bratter’s breakaway in overtime… you wish these things go well because it gets you on the right side of it. But if it doesn’t, you’re not ging to be down on the performance and the process because that’s really what it’s about. And the more you can duplicate that, you’re going to get good results. The biggest thing on home ice for us has been our starts, generally speaking. We’ve talked a lot about that, and for me, our last two games have been really, really good in that area. So that’s a positive.”
playing some good games at home recently but not having the results to show for it. The Devils home record of 7-6-3 is nowhere near where Keefe would like it.
Bass Came Back
Fresh off of playing his first game back in over a month due to a broken jaw, Nathan Bastian returned to the lineup against the Toronto Maple Leafs. While he didn't play a ton, for him, he was just so happy to be back with his teammates.
“It sucks so much when you’re missing time,” Bastian said. “When you’re missing time, and the team is doing so well, it really sucks to not be a part of it. So just to be out there again, it’s just awesome.”
