Hischier, Tatar Miss Practice for Maintenance Days | NOTEBOOK

The Devils begin preparing for a back-to-back scenario beginning with a stop in Detroit tomorrow night.
Today's practice had two noticeable absences in Nico Hischier and Tomas Tatar who both took maintenance days, missing practice. Hischier did skate this morning on his own, said Lindy Ruff, and both players remain available to play against the Red Wings.
Health has been on the forefront of everyone's minds, with players dealing with injuries and week-to-week timelines. For Ryan Graves, he was able to return to the game against Carolina over the weekend and said today that there was no additional concerns and his knee responded well to having played and practicing again today.

Important Meeting:

After the scary incident with Damar Hamlin in the NFL on Monday night, Lindy Ruff, a noted Bills fan, said he spoke with his team this morning about what had happened. Seeing Hamlin collapse on the field impacted was a reminder of how fragile life can be. When asked why it was important to address the situation, Ruff gave the following answer.
"Just for the fact that you never know when something like that can happen. Enjoy your time as a player, enjoy the practice, focus on enjoying, the Dad's trip, the Dads were around… staying in the moment. Staying present that today's practice really means the most. For me, I mentioned, it's not about yesterday's ice time, or I didn't get on the power play.
"The message is, you know, enjoy it," he continued, "Enjoy the group you're with, enjoy the time you're sitting in the dressing room, and you're kibitzing with the guy next to you, or you're having that dinner the night before the game. You've got a small amount of time, really, in the big picture a small amount of time as a pro player to achieve a common goal. So the message was, looking at last night's incident and just using that to move forward with us as a team."

Video: Lindy Ruff | PRACTICE RAW 1.3.23

Facing the Strong Opponents:

Practice today focused on some of the smaller areas of the ice, particularly along the boards and in the corners making sure puck support was strong and having a third man in the battle as an outlet in key scoring areas. It's lessons learned in practice that need to be executed in games, small but coslty areas.
For Miles Wood, that's the change that needs to be properly executed, because they've seen firsthand how teams that do end up getting the job done.
"That stretch that we played, they were a lot of great teams and they were tight games. That's just an area in the game we need to step up in. That's just the small things like if you look at the Bruins, you look at Carolina when they're up in a game, it's so hard for you to force them to do something wrong Like they're so structured and so good. And that's really one thing we have to learn."

Ondrej Palat Continues to Practice:

One thing that Wood mentioned about those small mistakes in games is that Ondrej Palat, who is close to a return "doesn't make those little mistakes." That's why his impending return is so crutial to this team.
"There's a lot of experience there," Lindy Ruff said, echoing Wood's comments. "To be able to play under pressure, I think I've mentioned a few times we didn't handle the pressure (in the game) very well. If you can handle the puck under pressure, if you know where the support is coming from, if you can trust your teammates are going to be in the right spot, it makes it a lot easier to play the game. He can make the small plays, I mean he's used to playing on the big stage, in the biggest games, and part of that experience for our guys is to be in those games."
There is still no official return for Palat, but he has been ramping up his practice pace recently.

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- REWIND: Storm Chaser - POST-GAME RAW: Graves | Blackwood | Bratt | Ruff - DEVILS NOW: Dads and Mentors