All Hands on Deck | FEATURE

Connor Brown has a boat analogy.

It came from a former teammate, who used to joke about the “holes in the boat” when things weren't quite going according to plan. Brown thought about it when reflecting on last season, a year that provided plenty of lessons for the Devils as they look ahead.

“There were some holes in the boat last year as well,” Brown said.

But the lesson Brown took from the experience isn't necessarily about the holes. It's about what happens when they appear, and how a team responds when circumstances change.

The key to a successful season is making sure everyone knows how to keep the boat afloat.

Brown thought about the analogy when reflecting on last season.

Over the course of an 82-, now 84-game season, every team is going to face adversity. Every team is going to take on water. Injuries happen. Players go through stretches when their game isn't where they want it to be. Circumstances change, and sometimes players are asked to step up in ways they hadn't anticipated. That's part of hockey.

What matters is how the group responds. What matters is how each individual works at filling the holes.

For Brown, last season provided plenty of those moments, and plenty of lessons he wants this team to carry into his second year in New Jersey.

The problem wasn't necessarily that anyone wasn't willing to bail water. It was that there was only so much water one player could bail.

And you can't fill all the holes, no matter how big or small, by doing it all yourself.

“I think sometimes when you go through the trials and tribulations of last year, things come to the surface,” Brown said.

One of the biggest takeaways was the importance of understanding your role within the larger picture. The addition of new players into the mix this off-season has strengthened the depth and Brown hopes that with the self-reflection from last season, guys can come in with a clear mindset and, most importantly, an understanding of how important each individual role is that they each play.

“Guys are at this point expected to come in and just play their role, right?” Brown said. “And I think that guys last year maybe were expected to play beyond what their role was.”

It's an important distinction. It's not about asking less of anyone, or expecting players to stay inside a box. Players will always have to adapt, and Brown knows there will be moments this season when somebody has to do a little more than usual.

But there is freedom in knowing what the team needs from you, and for you to be able to give that to make sure that both you and the guy playing next to you is able to give the best versions of themselves to the game. On each and every shift.

 “I think that it's a little bit easier for guys to come to the rink and understand what is expected of themselves,” Brown said. “And that can be more of the focus, and guys are slotted appropriately and just playing their role.”

Brown has learned the value of that throughout his career. As an athlete, he said, knowing your role can actually help filter out some of the noise and expectations that naturally come with playing professional hockey.

“Sometimes it's easier to break free from, like, the noise or added expectations if you really understand what your role is on the team, and then you can come and execute that role,” Brown said.

His own role is a good example. Brown's contributions aren't always going to show up in the same way as those of a top offensive player. If he's killing penalties and starting shifts in the defensive zone, that's part of what the team is asking him to provide.

“If I'm, for example, killing penalties and playing, you know, starting in the D-zone and I don't have 20 goals, well, the expectation wasn't for me to have 20 goals,” he said.

The trickle-down effect of knowing your role, accepting your role and playing within it, is what makes a team, well, a team.

The same principle can apply to the players at the top of the lineup, too.

Brown saw that during his time in Edmonton, playing alongside Connor McDavid. Even with arguably the in the world on the roster, there were moments when the team leaned too heavily on him, particularly during difficult stretches.

“It's like, in important times, we were leaning too much on him,” Brown said. Looking back, the lesson was that when players further down the lineup stepped up and handled their own responsibilities, McDavid became even more effective.

“When guys down the lineup through their own role, really played a step up, he was able to excel even more because less was expected of him,” Brown said.

Brown isn't looking back at last season to dwell on what went wrong. If anything, the experience gave the group a better understanding of itself: what it could handle, what it needed and how important every individual role becomes over the course of a season.

That distinction matters.

Because Brown doesn't believe the lesson from last season is that the Devils simply need to do more. He believes they need to do their thing better.

He used Jack Hughes as an example.

“If there's less expected of him, his time that he gets is going to be more impactful because he's not trying to fill other holes in the boat, type of thing,” Brown said.

That's really what the boat analogy means to Brown. It's not about having a perfect group where nothing ever goes wrong. It's about having enough trust throughout the lineup that everyone can pull their weight without constantly having to patch another hole.

And that understanding can make leadership easier, too.

Brown is naturally competitive, which made the frustration of last season difficult at times.

And as one of the clubs’ leaders, as one of its most respected veterans, Brown was relied on last season in a leadership role. He sits among the leadership group of this team, and his voice carries a lot of weight.

For Brown, the message is clear, when everyone starts finding their way to fill the holes in the boat by using their strengths and embracing whatever role is being asked of them, the group’s leadership can evolve, too. It becomes less “preachy,” as he describes it, because everyone is pulling in the same direction. The boat starts to stabilize, and leadership becomes a little more about guiding than constantly trying to steer everything yourself.

“Back to the analogy of the holes in the boat,” Brown said, “being able to have everybody, more guys that are leaders, more guys that are pulling on the rope, and more guys excelling in their own role, it just makes leadership for everybody that much easier.”

“There's less to say, there's less to do,” Brown said.

The ship becomes self-sustainable.

That's the kind of environment Brown wants to help create this season, and he has already seen signs of it before the regular season has even arrived.

Nearly two weeks before training camp officially opened, the Devils were already back on the ice together for captain's skates, with players showing up almost seven days a week. Brown noticed the commitment, but perhaps more importantly, he noticed that it didn't feel forced.

“I think it's really important,” Brown said. “And it feels really genuine too. It wasn't like, ‘Hey, be back here. We got to be here.’ But guys just wanted to come back because I think they genuinely enjoy being around each other.”

That's another lesson that can be carried forward from last season: the value of building a group that wants to be together, particularly when the difficult stretches arrive.

Because they will.

There will be injuries. There will be tough games and tough stretches. There will be nights when somebody has to step outside his normal role and help keep things moving.

The goal isn't to avoid every hole.

It's to know that when one appears, nobody has to fix it alone.

“Hockey's such a beautiful game because it's so incredibly a team sport,” Brown said.

For Brown, that's the mindset the Devils can take into this season. Know your role. Accept what the team needs from you. Be ready to step up when called upon, but trust the people around you to do the same.

Everyone pulls on the rope.

Everyone keeps the boat moving.

And maybe, this time, everyone has a little more experience knowing how to navigate the waves.