10 Takes Jan 23 Title

Plenty of alumni were around on Tuesday and Wednesday before Lemaire’s induction into the Ring of Honor, so it was a good chance to catch up and share stories from the past and about the future.

It came at the perfect time for this current edition of the Devils as they're trying to find their way to put the puzzle pieces together and find their stride again. It's important to keep plenty of perspective.

This is just a moment in time.

So there was a lot of positive talk about this Devils squad and what they can accomplish and how they can accomplish it, as the alumni spoke from Prudential Center.

And it started with these words from Lemaire himself:

“I think right to the top, right to the top," Lemaire said of where he thinks this current team has the ability to go. "They showed that they can play the game. It’s trying to be more consistent, having the same ideas, same goals, it’s all for the team. We can say a lot of things, but really when you learn all this, it’s when you go through it.

"You’re there, you’re part of a team that didn’t win, you never did, your teammates maybe didn’t make it, and you’re wondering, are we going to get there one day," he continued. "But if you’ve been there, you know all the sacrifice you’ve got to make to be on top. And you need help. And your work, how you work, how you think will help you to win the Cup.”

In this week's edition of 10 Takeaways, I'll have, sprinkled all throughout, insight from your favorite alumni on the state of the current team!

Let's get started...!

1.

Well, the message was certainly heard loud and clear. Not just for his team but everyone in the Prudential Center bowl, watching morning skate on Wednesday. Toward the early part of morning skate, Sheldon Keefe stopped practice, gathered his team, and loudly delivered a message of displeasure with how things were going.

If the team wants to get out of this moment in time where things aren't going in their favor, they're going to have to focus on every, single moment they have as a team together, and use their time wisely. It doesn't matter if it's a morning skate, to warm up the legs for later in the day, every moment is valubale.

"I just wasn’t happy with our execution, our energy," Keefe said following the skate. "To me, it wasn’t reflective of a team that is trying to find its way out of a hole right now. I expected better."

His message was loud and clear.

"We’ve got to stick together here," he continued. "We need our leadership and character to come to the forefront to get things going in our favor. We want to play with leads, we want to get a lead, to play with the lead, maintain a lead, get back to the winning side of it. To me, you’ve got to take advantage of every single rep you get as a team and that’s part of why we went out there today.”

It was just one game, but the win against the Bruins on Wednesday night will hopefully be a jumping-off point for this team that has been slowly working its way back to putting together all the puzzle pieces and finding the very best in its team game.

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2.

It was a punch to the gut to see Jacob Markstrom in evident pain and discomfort when Justin Brazeau crashed into his net on Wednesday night. You could instantly tell that something was wrong based on how long and still he remained face down on the ice.

The only update right now from head coach Sheldon Keefe is that Markstrom will ‘miss some time.’

For the team, this is truly a gut-check moment. As his goaltending partner Jake Allen has stated, Markstrom has been playing superb, Vezina-quality goaltending.

Now, the net will belong to Allen as the club navigates Markstrom’s updated injury evaluation and what the eventual recovery period will be. Allen, who picked up the win, coming in for Markstrom against the Bruins and shutting the door, has played some of his best hockey lately. The only difference for Allen has been he hasn’t gotten the run support from his teammates offensively. That wasn’t the case last night. It was a great indication of when all the elements of the teams game are aligned and clicking, this team can do great things.

So where do we sit now with the Markstrom injury?

The Devils have seven games left before the start of the 4 Nations tournament/February break that lasts nearly two weeks. This break in the schedule and it’s length is a bit of a gift for the Devils and Markstrom. It potentially limits the number of games Markstrom could miss by a wide margin. While we don’t know his full recovery time yet, simply having those two extra weeks of no games is two extra weeks of Markstrom's recovery without missing any games.

Between now and February 21, just under a month from now, the Devils have only seven games left.

Always have to look for some positives in a moment like this.

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3.

It flew slightly under the radar when Jacques Lemaire was talking before his Ring of Honor Ceremony, but it was something that certainly caught my ear.

Lemaire, who is from a suburb of Montreal, where I am from, spent his entire NHL career with his hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens. He won an incredible eight Stanley Cups as a player and another two as an assistant GM.

That’s 10 Stanley Cup rings with Montreal. Just incredible.

It also means he has a ton of rings to choose from to wear. Of course, they’re not everyday rings, but they come out on special occasions.

But it’s not those 10 that Lemaire chooses from — it’s the only one he won as a head coach that gets the call.

It’s Lemaire’s 1995 New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup Championship ring.

He explains why:

“The fact is, as a player, you have one guy to take care of, in a sense. It’s you. You have to show up and be the best, every night you play and that’s your goal. And you go on through the playoffs with that. As a coach, you have 23, 24 guys that you have to manage, make them believe that they can make it and that’s why that’s the ring I wear because it’s such a great… I remember myself behind the bench looking at these guys, it was incredible. I think about that today, often I think about that.”

It’s all about the team.

Added Scott Stevens:

“Jacques said, I still remember this, he won a lot of Cups but that was the one that was the biggest for him because he was in charge of so many players and it was his responsibility to put the systems in, get everyone together and play the right way and that meant a lot to him. With all the Cups that he won with Montreal, the Cup with us was really special.”

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4.

As the Devils skated at Prudential Center on the morning of the Ring of Honor induction, I caught up with the coach, and we discussed various topics.

We talked a lot about the player that Nico Hischier is to the club, and what he means to the team.

“A complete player," Lemaire said. "He’s a player who has excellent vision, excellent vision on the ice. Excellent, just excellent defensively and he plays with the exact mentality of a winner. When you see him and he has a chance to go on the offensive, he goes. When there isn’t a chance he knows when to retreat for a defensive opening and coverage. He’s also an excellent mentor."

Finally, I asked him if there was a player from either his playing days or his coaching days who reminded him of the player the Devils captain has become.

It took him some time to file through the Rolodex in his brain, having played for many, many years and coached for a bunch more, but he finally settled on one player.

"He could be like Trottier," he said. "Brian Trottier. He was an excellent player, offensively and defensively. He’s that type of player you need to win."

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5.

Travis Zajac shared this fun story with me about the years Jacques Lemaire coached him. He said that during some practices, Lemaire would make the team take shots from the blue line to help with their in-game confidence.

“He’s got a dry sense of humor,” Zajac recalled. “One story I just remembered from practice: he’d have us try and shoot from the blue line when we were doing shooting drills. That far away from the net. And when we would ask why, he said, because when we’re in a game when we would end up shooting it more because it would feel like we’re closer to the net!’”

6.

There are two players that I've always seen as the fabric that binds the older generation of the New Jersey Devils and the new, current generation of the Devils: Travis Zajac and Andy Greene. They played both with some of the greats of the past and also were there for the beginning of the future, like when Nico Hischier was drafted and made his debut and the arrival of Jack Hughes. The overlap wasn't terribly long with Jack, but Zajac and Greene were there for the beginning and have the unique experience of playing with the greats of the past and the greats of the franchise's future.

So when I was chatting with Zajac about being named to the Devils Quarter Century's Devils Second Team, we spoke at length about Jack, just 23 years old, being named to the First Team. There's a lengthy list of great forwards to have played for the Devils in the last quarter century, but Jack, just beginning his career, is more than deserving and that just goes to show, Zajac said, what type of a special talent he is.

“The type of player he is, by the end of his career, I think he will be recognized with Scotty (Stevens) and Marty (Brodeur) and those guys," Zajac said. "Just the talent he has. He’s a generation player. And hopefully for him, the team now has success, that he can have the same success that those guys had in their careers.”

"He's a special player," he added. "I think for this team, not only now, but with the way it's going, he'll be one of the greats, not only for this organization but in the league. It's nice to see him continuing to get better every year. And the team get better around him. I'm obviously happy for him and see him earn some of the success he deserves."

7.

One of the great things about having some of the greats around during special events like Lemaire's Ring of Honor induction is the opportunity to pick the brains of players who have been there and done that when it comes to winning Stanley Cups with the Devils.

So, when Scott Niedermayer stood in front of the media on Wednesday, I asked him his thoughts on the current Devils team. I asked him not only about where they are right now but also what advice he would give them.

For Niedermayer, it's all about going through it together.

“It’s exciting," he said. "When I was here we were fortunate to have that success and feel that you were a Stanley Cup contender when you came to training camp. You’re lucky to have that feeling, not every team truly has it. I think they’ve got themselves into that reality and now it’s going to be learning through experience. Getting into the playoffs, having a bit of a run and seeing what that’s all about because there is more to learn and it is a different game there. It’s exciting and hopefully, it can keep trending in the same direction.”

“Getting comfortable to the intensity and what the competition is exactly like," he added of what this current team will need to do to rise to the post-season challenge. "And just as Jacques taught us about the details, being consistent with those, being more consistent than the opponent, basically is going to help you win. I don’t think you truly understand how important that is until you’re there and experience it.”

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8.

From the start of the season, one constant refrain has been how Sheldon Keefe hones in on every detail of practice, games, and his day-to-day expectations of his team. And when it's not there, he will make sure you're reminded (See: Takeaway 1).

So, my ears really perked up when I listened to the team's alumni talk about their time with Lemaire. They described how detailed and focused he was, how work ethic was non-negotiable, and how nothing was ever grey in his explanations.

It felt similar to how this current roster speaks of Keefe, which is unsurprising, given Keefe and Lemaire's past relationship with their time in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. There's a genuine mutual respect there.

Everything is in the little details that add up to the ultimate goal. And for Niedermayer, it took a little bit to understand when he first came into the league, leading to this great story he shared:

"Jacques had a lot of patience with me, growing up and learning to be a professional," Niedermayer recalled. "And one of the things he wanted me to do was make sure my warmups were more intense and that I was getting ready to play. And I remember in Tampa, things got a little bit loud, I was sort of tired of him harping on me about my warmups.. and then I laughed to myself years later, I’m out in warmup and I’m the hardest working guy out there, I’m skating, I’m sweating and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Yeah, I guess he was right!’"

9.

I love sharing some stories that end up on the cutting room floor of certain articles for 10 Takeaways. That happened when I sat down with Nico Hischier last week ahead of his 500th NHL game. Not only did we talk about his progression through his 500 games but also the way he’s seen his national team grow over that span.

He said it also aligns with his current expectations of his NHL club. The bar is raised not just here in New Jersey but also with the Swiss national team, and he is, in some ways, the catalyst for both.

"It was very different for me, growing up as a kid," he said. "You were happy when the Swiss team would even just make it to the quarters,” Hischier said. “Just to make it out of the group stage, that would be a good tournament for us. And now, it’s almost like disappointing when you lose in the quarterfinals, which seems always a little crazy for me, because there’s a switch. A big switch. It’s great.”

When he finished his initial answer, I interjected that a lot of that has to do with him specifically, how he has helped grow Swiss hockey, how the way he is wired as a player, driven to succeed, is a big part of the engine that is driving the Swiss national team.

“You never win anything if you don’t have high expectations,” he reflected. “And high expectations are something you have to earn yourself. I think in Swiss ice hockey, we’ve done a great job, not just developing players for overseas, but in general in Switzerland too, from young kids who want to play hockey and promote hockey. I think we’re just getting better players out of it. And if I can be a part of that, why not, right? It’s such a positive thing.”

10.

Don’t look now, but here comes the next generation of Devils talent climbing up the all-time leaderboard.

Last week in Toronto, Jesper Bratt registered an assist, his 410th as a New Jersey Devil. This officially puts Bratt in the Top 10 in terms of most points scored for the franchise. He is now at No. 10, with 411 points, passing Zach Parise, who finished his career with New Jersey with 410 points in 502 games.

Nico Hischier is also approaching Top 10 status. He needs four points to tie Bruce Driver for 12th all-time before he sets his sights on Parise’s 410 and chasing down his current teammate and friend, Bratt.