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.”