Fitzgerald: 'The Answers Are In That Room' | FEATURE

The Devils are looking for answers after losing their sixth straight game Sunday night. It's a far cry from how the team opened the season - going on a 7-4-3 run and climbing near the top of the Metro Division.
There are many factors involved in the team's recent skid. Injuries have certainly been a factor, losing Jack Hughes for 17 games with a shoulder injury and Miles Wood all season due to a hip injury. The losses of Mackenzie Blackwood (neck) and Jonathan Bernier (hip) have forced the team to turn to Akira Schmid (the club's fifth goalie on the depth chart at the start of the year) and Jon Gillies (a recent acquisition that's played 14 career NHL games).
Couple that with a recent bout of COVID-19 that has taken captain Nico Hischier, Ryan Graves, Jesper Boqvist and Christian Jaros out of the lineup. And most recently various illness, such as the flu, have ravaged the squad. A COVID outbreak in Utica has made many of their players ineligible for recall, forcing the team's sick players to gut out games.

But none of those reasons can account for the club's inadequacies in puck management, decision making and lack of execution. All teams deal with injuries and COVID circumstances, but those issues have only exacerbated the previously stated issues for the Devils.
"I was really, really happy with the team we saw coming out of training and the first 15, 16 games of the season. Our record showed," general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. "We were rewarded for our structure and our commitment to structure, our commitment to details, our commitment to each other. I think that's slipped. We don't defend like we were defending earlier in the year. We don't come through the neutral zone like we were coming through the neutral zone. I think there's been a slip in our play."
Fitzgerald said the answers to their problems are "in that room." And the players need to heed the tutelage of the coaching staff.
"I believe it has to come from that room," he said. "They have to keep each other accountable. They have to push each other. They have to be committed to each other, the guy next to you, the guy across from you.
"We can lay down structure, but until they push each other like we were doing at the beginning of the year then you will see change. But I believe in the group because of what we saw coming out of training camp. We have to get that team back."
Part of getting back to where they were at the start of the season is getting back healthy. And with the postponement of their game Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, Fitzgerald hopes the break will allow them to get through their current illnesses and have a fresh start coming out of the Holiday break.
"What I hope and believe is this break will help us," he said. "It'll get us back healthy, we'll get our team back, and hopefully push each other to be the best we can possibly be, lay it on the line, play the right way, do the right things and live with the results.
"I believe once our bodies get back into a rhythm as a group, I really believe we'll be that fun group that started the year the way we did."