Devils Hold First Practice with Opening Night Roster | NOTEBOOK

As the regular season is quickly approaching, the Devils are back to work at practice following a team retreat. Monday night, New Jersey finalized it's opening night roster with 23 players. Tuesday's practice is the first time with only the main roster after several weeks of training camp and preseason.

Thursday night's season opener presented by Citizens will have a full slate of festivities leading to puck drop. More information can be found here.

Today's Videos:

• INTERVIEWS: Bratt | Smith | Palat | Ruff
• DEVILS NOW: Great Expectations

Tuesday's Work

The Devils spent a part of practice focused on special teams. Head coach Lindy Ruff has shared the team is using a 1A, 1B power play system right now with how much talent they have available for special teams.

At practice here's how the different units played out:

PP1A: Toffoli, J. Hughes, L. Hughes, Bratt, Palat 

PP1B: Hamilton, Mercer, Hischier, Holtz, Meier

Nosek, Marino, Bastian, and Siegenthaler made up one penalty killing unit with Lazar, Holtz, Smith, and Bahl as the other.

When it came to workflow here's how the Devils skated:

Expectations

Things are different for the Devils heading into the 2023-24 season: there’s huge expectations from both the team and the NHL. Last year, New Jersey had the biggest turnaround in NHL history from one season to the next and made it to the Second Round of the playoffs. Heading into this year, teams are expecting the Devils to be a challenge which puts a target on their back.

"We've earned the right to embrace those expectations," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff told media following Tuesday's practice. "That is something that going into last year we talked a lot about playing meaningful games and being a playoff team. We ended up in a great position. Now we know what is expected, we know where we're at. I think you have to welcome that. You have to welcome that challenge. It's the next step for our club is to know that we're not going to surprise anybody, that everybody's going to be ready for us and you've got recognition for how well you played as a team."

“I think right now we’re in a position where every team is going to look at us and have that (as a) team to beat,” Jesper Bratt explained. “That’s the approach that we want. That’s the expectations that we want and we’re ready to take on that.”

“I think it’s a good thing to have expectation,” Ondrej Palat explained about the Devils entering the season. “We’ve got to be good and I think that’s good for a young team like us. I’m excited and I think all the guys are excited to get going.”

Palat played for the Tampa Bay Lightning before joining the Devils last season, and during his time in Florida, the Lightning were a top team. The veteran forward understands the position the Devils are starting the season in.

“(In Tampa) we just learned how to win,” Palat said. “Every day is gonna be a battle against the other team. Everybody wants to win against us and sometimes it’s not going to be out day but we need to find a way to win, stick together, and fight to win.”

The Devils have a strong core of veteran players on their roster who are there to help provide guidance to the young core of star players. For defenseman Brendan Smith, one lesson he wants the team to learn this year is to not get ahead of themselves, something they started to learn during a 13 game win streak last year.

“(The veterans are) going to try to make sure that we replicate that same kind of start and make sure we come in and prepare ourselves for every game,” Smith shared. “I feel like we’re getting better in each practice so just kind of get ourselves ready. Preseason shape and practice shape is a little different than the first game so we’re excited to get going.”

Nemec's Improvements

Defenseman Simon Nemec did not make the Devils opening night roster, but the Devils are happy with how he's progressed throughout training camp. Sending him to play in the AHL for the Utica Comets was a decision to give him an increased amount of ice-time and opportunities he needs and wouldn't have right away in the NHL.

“It was a really good conversation,” Ruff shared about talking with Nemec after the roster was submitted. “I thought (his camp) started a little show but I thought as camp went on, he got better and better. Talked a lot about playing a lot of hockey, talked a lot about being on the power play, and being a top penalty killing guy and getting the ice time he would need. And how his game built as camp went on and really just to push himself, to just keep getting better and I think in camp he did that and now he’s going to continue to do that.”

The Opening Night Roster

On Monday at 5 p.m. ET, all opening night rosters were due to the NHL. The Devils named the following players to their regular season roster to start the year:

Forwards: Nathan Bastian, Jesper Bratt, Erik Haula, Nico Hischier, Alexander Holtz, Jack Hughes, Curtis Lazar, Michael McLeod, Timo Meier, Dawson Mercer, Tomas Nosek, Ondrej Palat, Chris Tierney, Tyler Toffoli

Defensemen: Kevin Bahl, Dougie Hamilton, Luke Hughes, John Marino, Colin Miller, Jonas Siegenthaler, Brendan Smith

Goaltenders: Akira Schmid, Vitek Vanecek

New Jersey also added the following four players onto their injured, non-roster list:

Forwards: Nolan Foote (upper body), Brian Halonen (lower body)

Goaltenders: Keith Kinkaid (upper body), Nico Daws (off-season hip surgery)

When it comes to season opening games, New Jersey has won a large majority of them. The Devils enter Thursday's game with a 22-10-4-4 record all-time. Looking at season openers at Prudential Center specifically, the Devils are 5-6-4.