Rinse and Respond | NOTEBOOK

The Devils are practicing RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House inside Prudential Center on Wednesday afternoon before flying to Pittsburgh.

Stay tuned to the notebook for the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

Practice Details

Devils defenseman Simon Nemec (lower-body) and forward Evgenii Dadonov (undisclosed) joined the group for practice. Injured blueliner Johnathan Kovacevic (knee) also took part once again in a practice session.

As far as Nemec, all signs point to a return to play at Pittsburgh on Thursday.

“He feels good. He said he feels good to go,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Assuming he wakes up tomorrow and there’s no setback, he’ll be good to go.”

Nemec has missed the past 12 games with a lower-body injury. Prior to that, he had been one of the team’s best players at generating offense and finishing chances.

“He was the one guy that was really feeling it on offense, finishing on chances, scoring from distance, shooting the puck in the net,” Keefe said. “That’s what we’ve lost, that offensive swagger that he has.

“That’s a welcome addition to the group in terms of that boost that he can give. We just have to get him up to speed.”

Keefe also noted that forward Paul Cotter, a healthy scratch in the past three games, will return to the lineup in place of forward Juho Lammikko.

“There are limited options in terms of what we can do to shake up the group a bit,” Keefe said. “Bringing Cotter back in and giving him a good opportunity to step into a good and important line, I want to see what he can bring. He has the ability to make a difference.”

Day After Response

The Devils are coming off one of the worst loses in franchise history, 9-0 to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena Tuesday night. The club had a honest and vocal meeting prior to practice and then hit the ice.

“I thought we had really good discussions and meetings,” Keefe said. “You want to show that you care. Have the appropriate discussions. Some blunt conversation, take that in the right manner then take it to the ice and have a good practice, which is what we did.

"This is not my first crisis in my coaching career. And I don’t plan on wasting it. Today is an important day for me and for our group, and for the players themselves it’s just focusing on what you can control. Today was a good practice day. We get an opportunity tomorrow to get out and play."

Goaltender Jake Allen has been a member of many teams in his long NHL career. He's seen the ups and downs and what it takes to win, and what it takes to dig out of a hole.

"That means coming the rink every day with a consistent attitude and mindset," he said. "Practicing consistently. Doing your habits and details every single day. It may seem monotonous and hard some days. I get it. It’s hard to come to the rink sometimes when you’re banged up and bruised and tired. Those are the days you have to push through. It’s a challenge for our group. If we can get over the hump here it’ll really set our group off. That’s exciting. We have so much potential in this locker room. I want to see those guys shine."

Long-Term Response

The Devils have suffered tough losses throughout this season and have responded the right way. What’s been lacking throughout the year is a consistent response.

“Do we expect to have a big bounce back against Pittsburgh? Yeah, but it has to be maintained,” forward Connor Brown said. “The level of pride in defense and in each other needs to go way up.”

Part of the issue is the Devils have drifted away from the structure that was paramount to their success in the early part of the season – in which they ran off an eight-game winning streak.

“I think we’ve gotten away from our foundation and what brought us success in the beginning of the year,” Brown said. “We already proved when we won eight in a row coming out of training camp. All we talked about was structure in our team. As we’ve gone along, we’ve gotten away from it.”

“Our game has been inconsistent. That’s going to be the battle for us to the end of this break,” Allen said. “Really try to find consistency. This isn’t going to flip overnight. It takes some time to build. When we play hard and find that consistency day in and day out, you have to look at yourself internally. If you bring yourself to work every day it’ll benefit the group in the long run. Once we get that rolling, we have a very good hockey team, we just have to find that little bit.”

As far as the challenge in front, Keefe wants the team to take an honest look at itself.

“Let’s embrace who we are and what’s going on. Let’s not kid ourselves about who we think we are,” he said. “This is where we’re at. So, let’s get to work fixing it.

“Bigger picture, this is who we are. We’re in a fight. We were in a fight last year this time too, things started to go this way. It’s been a while here. Let’s embrace that and focus on doing the things that we have to do to be a team that earns expectation. Not just given as a label. I think we have lots of work ahead of us.”