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After a day off Sunday, the Devils were back to work with practice Monday. New Jersey has a busy week with four games in six days starting with a home game against the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.

Below is the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

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Practice Details

The Devils' practice Monday saw full attendance of healthy players and started off with some small area games, 3v3, with both goaltenders participating. From the first whistle of practice, the team was energetic and participating at full speed. After the first 10 minutes of the on-ice session, the Devils went into a 3v3 scrimmage for five minutes. They started with the following combinations:

Bratt, Hughes, Hughes
Noesen, Palat, Siegenthaler
Tatar, Dowling, Kovacevic
Meier, Hischier, Hamilton
Lazar, Bastian, Dillon
Mercer, Cotter, Pesce

Following the 3-on-3 scrimmage, here was the Devils workflow:

Later on, the Devils worked on their breakouts, two forwards against a defenseman, with the forwards fighting to win a board battle and make the pass to clear the d-zone. Following, it was 1v1 as players looked to gain possession and clear the puck past the blue line.

Monday's practice drills were intentional to help the Devils practice smaller areas of their game that will help with their overall play.

“It’s the little battles that happen inside of structure, that happen all over the ice that are so important,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said following practice. “The wall play, the execution in those combative situations when you’re under pressure. Something we’ve worked on since really day one of training camp. When you get practice time like this, it’s a rare practice day coming off a day off for us, where we can get some extra reps on those types of things. But certainly are going to be important this week with the competition that’s coming, and really the whole season and what we’re building towards.”

“We had a lot of battles,” Timo Meier explained about Monday’s practice. “We went over some stuff that we believe we can do a better job with. We do a video (session) and then practice usually relates on the things that we got to work on. Good practice today that we got a lot of stuff done heading into this week.”

Devils forward Curtis Lazar discussed how Sheldon Keefe's intentional drills and detailed practices have helped the team throughout the season.

“He does a great job translating the games,” Lazar shared. “Areas we're good at, areas we need to work on and then hammering home the point. There's no better time to (than) in practice. The drill specific stuff you get muscle memory going and then it's top of mind and you continue to tweak and build and you feel good about yourself. A game that, even if we end winning by one goal, could have been more just because of a few details here and there. It's a great job on his behalf and shows the kind of coach that he is because he addresses those issues, and then we're all on board with it too and it's fresh on our mind, ready for the next game.”

Success Against the Panthers

The Devils will host the Florida Panthers for their first game this week. The contest will be the third and final matchup between New Jersey and the defending Stanley Cup Champs. The two previous games were on Nov. 12 and Nov. 14, both in Florida, and the Devils picked up all four points. Keefe discussed how his team was able to be so effective against the Panthers two months ago.

“We went in with a very clear plan,” Keefe said about the two straight games against the Panthers in November. “Obviously the Cup Champs and the level of respect we have for them brought out the best in us but everything with and without the puck was executed at a high level. Not that we didn’t make mistakes but we had a game plan going in. The guys stuck with it, committed to it. It was really having everything fall into place that we talked about in training camp all the way through to that point, and it being probably the most consistent that it’s been throughout 60 minutes in each of those games. I would say it set a real model for us of what we’re capable of.”

Keefe speaks to the media following Monday's practice

Next Step Defensively

As the Devils continue to step up their defensive game, forward Timo Meier discussed how reading situations better can help the group take their play to the next level.

“Reading situations better,” Meier said about next steps for their defensive game. “I think sometimes we don’t do a good job recognizing the situation, getting caught on the wrong side of people, and just making sure we, especially coming back into the zone, are limiting the team’s room to skate through the neutral zone. I think that’s something that we can do a better job with.”

Meier chats with the media following Monday's practice

Squires Takes Devils Training Camp Message to Heart

Amanda Stein caught up with Cam Squires for this week's Prospect Watch:

Cam Squires remembers hearing it clearly.

“Competing is like breathing. If you’re going to be a Devil, you’ve got to compete.”

Sitting listening to Tom Fitzgerald, General Manager of the New Jersey Devils, to begin the 2024 Training Camp, Fitzgerald’s words were loud and clear.

And they were poignant.

“It’s a thing that requires no talent,” Squires remembers Fitzgerald saying. “That’s something you should bring every day; it’s one of the most important things.”

“He said it with such authority, with such meaning,” Squires said. “Because of that, it just kind of hit me; it really stuck with me.”

Read the full article here!

API Night

Tuesday night will be the Devils' annual Asian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Night, the club's third Hockey is For Everyone night of the season. There will be speciality food items, performances, specality jerseys and more. Tickets are still available here.

Ahead of this year's API Night, the Devils highlighted defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler's hockey camp he held this past summer in Thailand. Siegenthaler is the first player of Thai descent in the NHL and has used his platform to support and inspire Thai hockey players. Read more about the camp and Siegenthaler here.