SHORT MEMORIES
With two games in three days against the Boston Bruins, the Devils have their work set out for them. The Bruins were the best team in the League at the conclusion of the 2019-20 season and fell in the playoffs to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions. Although the visitors took the first game on Thursday night, the Devils fight in the third and overtime periods showed the team they could keep up with a veteran opponent.
"I think when we look back at the game, we got better as the game went on which is a positive. And we got some more confidence," said Travis Zajac. "As a young team, we can compete with one of the better veteran teams in this league and it gives us confidence going into tomorrow's game."
The Devils will look to have a much quicker start in Saturday's game after they struggled in their first period against the Bruins on Thursday night.
"We just can't dip our toe in the water, we got to go after them and get pucks behind them," said Zajac. "With our speed we can cause problems and make their defense turn and get over pucks and just tty and get three guys on the forecheck, our defense up ice, and I think if we do a better job of that [in] tomorrow's start we'll dictate some more of the play."
"I think we had nerves, we didn't handle the puck very well, we didn't make very good decisions with the puck early on," said Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff. "I thought after that it was a hard compete game that went both ways. Both teams generated some good opportunities. And I thought the longer it went, the better we seem to be getting."
Bruins forward Brad Marchand had two goals and a primary assist on the other Boston goal, and defenseman Damon Severson said that their opponent's top line is one they need to focus in on."
"[The Bruins] have a very potent top line and they're even missing one of their best players," said Severson. "They have a good power play, they're good off the rush, they're good in the offensive zone. They've played together for so long now, so they're a tough team to defend."
"We had a couple tough breaks and Kulikov broke his stick on the [first Marchand goal] and wasn't able to cover the back door, and then you know the shootout is the shootout, that's just luck of the draw."
When it comes to how the team prepared for Saturday's game in their practice Friday, Ruff and his coaching staff focused on the mentality and 'keeping it simple' game plan.
"We met this morning, we went through some situations on the ice. We talked about the mentality we want to have going into the game. We want to keep tomorrow really short, obviously just playing them [Thursday] I think they're going to have a good feel for us, we've got a good feel for them."
"We had a couple breakdowns and gave them some great opportunities, we'd like to clean up."
