Hischier Skates with Teammates | NOTEBOOK

It was back to work Monday for the New Jersey Devils and a very familiar face was on the ice with his teammates today.

Captain Nico Hischier was one of the first players on the ice this morning, as he continues to work his way back from his injury sustained in October.

The prep work begins for a Thanksgiving week where the team will play three games in four nights starting on Wednesday in Detroit. Following their game against the Red Wings, the Devils will host the Blue Jackets in an afternoon matchup on Friday and the Buffalo Sabres for Hockey Fights Cancer Night on Saturday.

Happy for Hischier

It has been a long time since the No. 13 was spotted amongst the rest of the Devils numbers on a practice surface. Today, captain Nico Hischier's return to practice provided an extra boost for his team. Hischier, who has played just seven games this season and hasn't suited up since Oct. 27, took another step in his recovery by joining his teammates today. There continues to be no definitive timeline for his return to play, head coach Lindy Ruff shared. But it was certainly a sight everyone was glad to see. 

"First big day back at practice, great to see him out there," Ruff said, "I think the guys get a bit of renewed energy just seeing Nico."

Hischier has been skating on his own for the last week or so, the head coach indicated. 

"It's very nice to see him," Jonas Siegenthaler added, "He's been working hard, that was his first team practice. It was just nice to have him back. I told him, he just has to take his time. It's not an easy injury. Whenever he feels ready and feels confident enough to step into the game he'll do that. But he's doing better and we're happy."

Noticeably from the Devils lineup is a lot of mixing and matching with the forward group, even with the return of Hischier. There were four forwards who were missing from practice today, Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula took maintenance days, while there is no update quite yet on Tomas Nosek, who was absent after the hit he took from Jacob Trouba over the weekend. 

The fourth forward missing was Timo Meier, who the Devils do not anticipate will be traveling on the upcoming road trip to Detroit. Meier has not yet skated but has been working out off the ice.

1v1

There was an obvious focus on 1-v-1 battles at practice, not only in an attempt to work on the 50/50 battles but also to raise the level of compete to a higher level. It's those little areas that are not so little in the heat of a game that can ultimately be the difference between winning and losing a game. 

"It was really important," Ruff said, "The biggest difference in the Pittsburgh game (compared to New York), was we came up with a lot of pucks. We broke the puck out easy, we got the puck out early on. I think if we stay down the road winning those battles, we'll be in a real good place."

Those finer details of the game can be big difference-makers, like defending a lead to close out a game.

"The little details are so important in nowadays hockey," Jonas Siegenthaler said, "Every faceoff means something, every 50/50 battle. It's those little details we can do better and we can focus more on that during the game, we've just got to do a better job on that."

Hockey Fights Cancer

On Saturday, when the Devils host the Buffalo Sabres, the club will host their annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night in partnership with RWJBarnabas Health. 

The Devils will host 13-year-old Charlie Shomers, a cancer patient and lifelong Devils fan, and his family at the game and will have a full gameday experience with the club, including signing a one-day contract by General Manager Tom Fitzgerald, he'll get an official jersey and locker stall, as well as a meet and greet with his favorite Devils player, Jack Hughes.