The Quick Hits:
Nico Hischier on the season ending and how they can use this year: “Definitely sucks obviously packing up already here. It’s been a rough year but I think it’s a year that we can still take good things out of it and learn from it. It’s important to evaluate a year like that and try to make the best out of it so that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Ondrej Palat on how the Devils can use this loss to be successful and how this happened with the Tampa Bay Lightning: “Sometimes you need to lose to learn, and be better. That’s exactly what we did in Tampa. We had a terrible playoffs, we got swept, we looked ourselves in the mirror, we made some changes, coaches made some changes in the structure. And we took the defensive part of the game as a number one to help us to success in this league and that’s what happened the last couple of years.”
Jesper Bratt on what the Devils need to do this off-season: “It wasn’t a step in the direction that we wanted to go. We have to see this as a big motivation and use it as fuel for the summer … We really have to dial it in as individuals to come back as a better player, more mature and ready to do the right things to get this team back in the playoffs where we should be.”
Timo Meier on his plans for the off-season: “Just get healthy and then spend the time in the gym, put the work in. I know how big the off-seasons are for me personally. Playing my best I have to be in the best shape, if I want to play consistent and style of game that brings me success, I got to put a lot of work in the gym and make sure when I get here after the off-season I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. That’s the goal for me.”
Curtis Lazar on his season and how it started with training camp: “You go back to training camp, playing in every preseason game that’s a lot of hockey too. They said they wanted to give me extra reps to get my body right, I kind of looked at it that they’re trying to evaluate something here.That kind of gave me that fire and that burn, they want to see something. I thought I had a very strong camp and that allowed me to start the season off right and carry that momentum all the way through.”
Alexander Holtz on his season and what he's working on: “I feel like it’s been a lot of up and downs. I think I started off pretty hot and then kind of slowed down. The most thing I want to be better at next year is be a more consistent player throughout the year and play a better overall game.”
Dawson Mercer on playing all 82 games for his third consecutive season: “I think it’s something I’ve focused on my full career since I’ve been here. I want to be a guy that can be put in the lineup every game and be relied on and be ready to go. It’s important. I try to play the game smart, don’t put myself in those situations where things can happen, prepare, make sure you’re ready for the game and when you have things going on, take care of it.”
Kurtis MacDermid discussed the Devils and his experience with New Jersey: “Great team here, great young core. Obviously there’s some good pieces and just got to put it together. There’s a bright future for this organization for sure.”
Kevin Bahl talked about what he learned this season and the challenges he faced: “The experience for me personally against top guys, just trying to learn as quickly as possible right away. It’s a different game when you’re playing against with that kind of skill, or that caliber of player. Just learning, little details in your game, stick positioning, body positioning. Everything becomes that much more important especially on defense, you make one little tiny mistake, your stick wasn’t in the right spot or your body should have been this way, it could be a scoring chance (against).”
Kaapo Kahkonen talked about his time with the Devils and commented on if he would like to return as he's a unrestricted free agent: “I felt good from the start. A bunch of good guys in the room, easy room to come into. I felt good with my time here as of now ... I would be open to negotiating, everything was great here but you never know, I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no. It’s just the way this business works, everyone has to evaluate and see where they’re at as an organization and then where’s the best opportunity for myself.”
Jake Allen shared how the Devils should remain optimistic after this season with what the future could hold: “I think there’s a lot of optimism here, there should be. We know what type of team we can be. We’ve seen it through the small stretch that I was here, and from afar with my perspective from Montreal the last couple of years. That’s the way we should approach it, a lot of optimism. We all want to put our work boots on and make sure to find a way to get a little bit better this summer and come in prepared in training camp, healthy, excited, ready to play the right way.”
Marino discussed the defensive core battling through adversity this season: “It was tough. Hamilton going down, some young guys in the lineup. Obviously didn’t go the way we wanted but we battled until the end, did what we could, and we’ll go from there.”
Brendan Smith on his impacts with this group: “I thought I had a good year and helped out in multiple ways. I know my voice is almost as impactful, or more than it is on the ice. I’m still very pleased with where I am as a hockey player in this league. We’ll see how it unfolds. If I’m back I will be quite happy.
Erik Haula on the season and not quitting during the final stretch: “The way we fought until the last game, even though we didn’t get as many wins at the end, I still think that we can keep our heads high on how we finished the season. We didn’t quit at any point. I think we have a very good group.”
