Close to Capacity | NOTEBOOK

The Devils were on the ice in Newark today as they prepare to host the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday when their NHL schedule resumes. 

Check out the notebook for the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

Nearly There 

As the NHL season is set to resume tomorrow, the Devils were nearly at full capacity with their players at practice today. Making a return to the ice with their Devils teammates were Olympians Nico Hischier, Simon Nemec and Jacob Markstrom. Jesper Bratt returned over the weekend and was present at Sunday's practice, while Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler each were delayed in returning to New Jersey because of travel-related delays. As for Jack Hughes, the club is currently working on his travel plans from D.C. to New Jersey for Wednesday. 

Meier and Siegenthaler were mid-air on Tuesday afternoon and are expected to be at morning skate on Wednesday.

The Olympic Experience

Fresh off of their Olympic experience, both Hischier and Nemec shared their thoughts on the full experience. For Nemec, he and his Slovak squad made it to the bronze medal game, falling short to the Finns. Nemec was one of the Slovak's top performers, regularly leading the team on time on ice. Both Hischier and Nemec relished the experience. 

"First of all, it's nice to see it bring the country together, and everyone was cheering for us," Nemec said. "We had so many fans in the stands. It was really nice to see that, also for us, it was good for our confidence that we can play against everyone and if we are playing our game, we can beat anyone too."

"We played against the best players in the world, against Italy we were probably favored, but against the other teams we were the underdogs," Nemec added. "We played against really good players, and I think me and all the team, we did a great job against them."

Hischier called the whole thing "a great experience". He and his Swiss Devils teammates all arrived in Italy to be part of the Opening Ceremony. 

"It was pretty cool," Hischier said of walking in the Opening Ceremony. "It's kind of one of those feelings, you try to soak it in. The stadium is pretty big, great stadium. You're just walking into this beautiful stadium and lots of people there. It was a cool feeling."

And while Hischier and the other Olympians didn't quite get the same type of break as the other players, he's still ready to go for this final stretch. 

"I'm feeling well, I'm feeling great to be back here and my focus has shifted back to New Jersey, and obviously we want to turn it around here. That's where it starts tomorrow, and that's where I'm going to have my focus 100 percent."

Back to Business

It's all back to business now for this Devils group. Starting on Wednesday, they'll resume their season with three games in four nights, two of which are on the road with stops in Pittsburgh and St. Louis on Thursday and Saturday, respectively. The Devils have 25 games remaining on their schedule and are currently on the outside looking in on the postseason. But this group does not count itself out. 

"Every game is important," Hischier said. "Treat the next game as the most important."

“It’s a playoff game, every game,” Bratt said of this upcoming stretch. “For us as a team to really, really come together and build on something here that gives us a chance to win. I think the consistency is something that we didn’t have for a big part of the season and it’s going to be key now. If we don’t find that consistency, it’s going to be hard to go where we want to go."

"We know we (had) a tough stretch before the Olympics," Nemec said. "We cleared our heads a little bit and now we are ready for fight for the playoffs and that's the only thing that matters right now."

Quick Hits

On Tuesday the club assigned forward Dylan Wendt to Adirondack of the ECHL and have assigned defenseman Dennis Cholowski back to the Utica Comets.