Accountability. What is it?
"It's everything," says veteran defenseman Brendan Smith. But what exactly is everything?
In the last year and a half, the word has circled around the Devils' locker room, it's been a part of the keywords, coded as part of the culture change that we have seen take shape.
"I think it's the reason that teams change," Smith said, "You start hearing some of these teams that are trying to change their culture. And that's like the new word buzzword at the moment. And that comes from accountability. So, they're trying to change that, that culture and it starts with that."
What it boils down to is becoming a group that understands the way honesty works.
"Just be honest to each other," captain Nico Hischier said when asked about his personal definition of accountability. "Be honest to each other. Be able to just be honest (…) know it's always about the big picture for the team, don't be hurt by it."
The team is off to one of the best starts in franchise history, coming off a 13-game win streak and holding a 16-4-0 record, there has been a shift in the team's frame of mind. And None of it is by accident.
"If you promote it, you permit it," Smith shared of an important refrain. As one of the leadership voices in the room, he isn't afraid to speak his mind. He's unafraid to call things as he sees them, and he practices what he preaches. He's played with some of the greatest leaders the game has ever seen. His time in Detroit with the Red Wings was headlined by players like Niklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg.
"I was able to watch them, and they never took days off," the 33-year-old defenseman said, "I try to keep that mentality. I know (Tomas Tatar) does too because we watched these guys when we were young. And so, for me (accountability) is you never take a day off and you always have that attention to detail."
At just 23 years old and already in his sixth season, Hischier, and the way he carries himself around the locker room and the ice, feels familiar to Smith. Glimpses of those impactful leaders he took notes from once upon a time.
"(Nico) reminds me of Nik Lidstrom, where he came in and does the right things on a daily basis, then people emulate that, and your team kind of grows that way. He's a big part of the organization and we're lucky to have him."
The Devils this season certainly look like a club that will permit only what they're promoting, and that's bringing it to the rink every day.
It's clear that accountability, in all its forms, is also a learned practice and watching and learning from those who have come before you. Part of learning the art of accountability (and an art it is the more you hear people talk about its intricacies) is asking the most of yourself before you can ask the most of your teammates. It's a two-tiered process.
Accountability to yourself, that's where things begin. It's vitally important because it creates a trickle-down effect.
"First it means you can recognize and evaluate your own play," head coach Lindy Ruff shared, "it's not looking over the fence at somebody else. It's holding yourself accountable to the level that we need to play at and when you can be at that level, a lot of times you can help your teammates at the same time."
If you are not living up to your own expectations, how can you possibly expect to hold your teammates to a higher standard?
Bratt explains: "Accountability to yourself. How committed are you to be early at the rink to get everything you have to get done? How committed are you to get the workouts and get that extra work and to become better every day? And I think when you have that mindset, getting better every day, and doing all the small things that you have to do to get better every day, then you have a better chance of helping the whole team and make sure that the whole team bonds together."
It all comes with a certain degree of self-growth, a maturity that arrives with age and experience. It is a learned practice that has a correlation to success on the ice.
As Smith said, it's the reason teams change. And early this season, we're certainly seeing a change.
Accountability to yourself opens up the trickle-down effect. Living up to your own words and expectations opens up the honest opportunity to ask for more from your teammates.
"That's a big key," Hischier remarked, "Are you pushing each other? That's makes you a better team."
What is unique in the Devils' current circumstance is how the majority of the young core is a group of players who have come up through the organization together. So close in age, they're all learning on the go, together. They're a bonded group, as Bratt says, and they're good friends. Cliques aren't part of the locker room equation. But strong friendships also come with a unique set of challenges when it's time to go to work. As teammates, they still must hold their friends accountable.
It's not always that easy. You have to have the right attitude and maturity about it.
"I think you just have to see it from the standpoint that you care about each other, that you want to challenge them and succeed," Bratt, who entered the league the same year as captain Nico Hischier, said.
"It's not that you yell and scream at each other," Ruff added, noting that holding friends accountable is a hard thing to do sometimes, "I think it's a level of, you know, if somebody's made a mistake, it's, you've got to be better. I'm going to be there for you when you make that mistake, but you got to be better. And it's really about having each other's back. In a positive way, not a negative influence, but knowing that the team will be better."
For Hischier, he finds the close-knit group and friendships make it easier to hold one another accountable.
"I think it's easier because they're my friends on and off the ice," the 23-year-old captain conferred, "I'm a little different on the ice or during the game (than off the ice), So if I say something they know I want the best for the team and not to attack them. And if somebody tells me that, I'm definitely not going to be the guy that takes it the wrong way. It's the big picture."
That's team maturity, not necessarily by age, but by experience.
General Manager Tom Fitzgerald's refrain as he worked towards building this group, has been that raw talent alone from the "young core" wasn't going to cut it. Everyone must learn to be winners, to have that championship mentality. And that bringing in supporting, experienced voices, is all part of putting the pieces to the puzzle together.
"I think trying to support this group, I whole-heartedly believe we can't just have kids playing in the National Hockey League," Fitzgerald said in 2020, at the time as the interim GM. "You've got to have men supporting them, I say that with all due respect to our young men. But experience is something that you can't just create it."
That's why the Smiths of the world, Ondrej Palat, and Erik Haula were all eventually brought in. Just as Smith recalls watching the Red Wing greats, leaning on them for growth, this Devils group does the same.
"(Haula) knows what it takes," Bratt said, "and he knows all the different stages throughout the whole season. So, he's definitely a key guy to listen to. He wants everything out of everyone, every day," Bratt continued, "and he demands for perfection."
And that takes us to leading by example.
Not everyone is comfortable with using their voice, Ruff says, 'some guys, that's just not in their personality.' But they find other ways to demand accountability from their teammates. It doesn't exclude them from being part of the solution. When we hear the refrain 'he leads by example' it's not just lip service. Ruff, who has been around the game for a long time, has seen how leading by example breeds team accountability.
"I can tell you that players get more excited when they see something that is really important for the team, than when they hear something that's good for the team," the veteran coach specified, "So, when they see a blocked shot, when they see a guy back check from 200 feet and catch somebody from behind, you can stand in the room and talk about it, but when they see it, it's like an instant reward.
"And it's the type that when you see it, you want to be like that. I mean, it sets a level that you go 'oh boy, man, look at him go, I've got to do that."
Although the 13-game win streak ended earlier this week, perhaps, other than the points in the standings, the most valuable thing that derived from it is how the team practiced what they preached, and promoted only what they permitted. And that's being accountable to one another, as friends and as teammates. It all goes hand-in-hand.
"If someone is really pushing you harder, someone is being hard on you by helping you and demanding that you are the best version of yourself every day and you stay committed, and you show up here ready to go, I think that's some of the keys to being a good friend," Bratt shared, and continued:
"We have to respect each other that when we show up here, we're ready to go."
As the captain says: That's what makes you a better team.
And that's what, early this season, they've shown they are.
