Practice in BC | NOTEBOOK

The Devils are practicing at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia a day before facing the Canucks.

Stay tuned to the notebook for the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

Practice Details

The Devils had full attendance at their practice session in Vancouver, including recently recalled defenseman Colton White.

There appears to be one tweak with the top power-play unit. Amanda Stein noted that Connor Brown is working the net-front with Dougie Hamilton, Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier rounding out the unit.

The team used the following workflow showing no changes from the previous two games.

If It Ain't Broke

It’s no surprise that the Devils are sticking with the same forward groupings of the past two games. After all, the Devils did win both of those games. But they’ve also liked what they’ve seen from the groupings.

“It’s been good,” Keefe said. “I think (Paul) Cotter has done a good job filling in in the middle of the ice here these last couple games. That’s been helpful. Connor Brown has really helped supporting that line. (Cody) Glass and (Arseny) Gritsyuk, I expected they would continue to do good. Lenni (Hameenaho) has filled in beautifully and had two good games here to start. There’s lots to like.”

Glass and Gritsyuk both scored against Edmonton on Tuesday night. Those goals stood to help the team earn a 2-1 victory. The offensive support from the bottom-6 was crucial, especially with the top-6 drawing tough defensive responsibilities.

“The other two lines have been really good too despite some tough matchups, especially with Edmonton,” Keefe said. “I felt going into the Edmonton game our depth, the way our lines were, could be a real factor in the game.”

Stonks

The Devils have won the first two games of their current four-game road trip with 2-1 victories over Calgary (in overtime) and Edmonton. In all, New Jersey has won four of its last five games.

“I feel like we recognize that the trend is going in the right direction,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s not where we need it to be quite yet but it’s trending that way. We’ve been happy with the mindset of our team, the energy of our team, the buy-in of our team, all these things you need to get to where we need to go.”

That has helped the Devils close the gap (slightly) in the race for the playoffs. New Jersey has 54 points through 50 games (26-22-2). That puts them four points behind Boston (50 games played, 28-20-2 58 points) for the final spot in the Wild Card chase and five points behind the NY Islanders (50, 27-18-5, 59) for the third spot in the Metro Division.

“We need that to continue. We can’t have a setback here,” Keefe noted. “We don’t have the luxury.”

The Devils turnaround can be traced back to a loss. The team suffered a 4-3 loss at Winnipeg on Jan. 11. But the seeds of success were planted in that game. What followed was an impressive victory at Minnesota, 5-2. It was a big road win against an elite Western Conference foe. A 3-2 overtime win against Seattle followed. Then a 4-1 setback to Carolina. But the Devils rebounded with the two wins against the Flames and Oilers.

“I think it was the Winnipeg game,” Keefe noted of the turnaround. “We didn’t get the result in that game but we started to move in the right direction. A huge effort in Minnesota saw it come together. That built the belief that we were able to bring back home. We’re able to bounce back from the Carolina game because of the work we did previous to that.

“We’ve gotten some good results here in the early going (of the road trip), but not easy results. These are 2-1 hockey games. These are very, very tight games. You need some things to go your way, but you need to do the things you can to give yourselves an opportunity for it to go your way.”

The Devils have now proven they can win in tight games. But the true test will be continuing to win tight, low-scoring games until they can find more offense.

“We’d like to finish more of our chances and give ourselves some breathing room,” Keefe said. “But I’ve liked our mindset at managing games when they have been tight. We talked today. There are things we want to do better.”

Special Guests

The Devils, and particularly defenseman Brenden Dillon, had some special guests attending the team’s practice. Youths from Dillon’s summer hockey camp in the Surrey-Langley area attended the session to add some vocal support, fun and encouragement to the players on the ice.

“I was one of those kids, a while ago now, but a minor hockey association that I grew up with in Surrey, Langley,” Dillon said. “Hooting and hollering when we scored some goals and give us some more good vibes. It was fun.”

The kids were from the U11, U12 programs. They cheered, got some autographs and enjoyed a memory to last a lifetime.

“Some kids in elementary school just excited to watch an NHL practice, gets some autographs from some of the guys, which is nice,” Dillon said. “Very cool to have them come and join.”

For Dillon, he knows the impact and importance of moments like this on the youths.

“I’m not here without that chapter of my life, that chapter of my hockey career,” he said. “As a young player growing up in Canada, hockey is everything. You’re playing hockey in school, watching hockey, at home you’re playing mini sticks with your buddies. You’re talking about games with your buddies in school every day. Hockey is everything.

“I’m just so fortunate to do what I do. I love being an NHL hockey player. I love being a New Jersey Devil. If I can share a day in the life of a hockey player, it’s a cool aspect of this.”

He Said It

Keefe on using blueliner Simon Nemec on his offside: “There are some adjustments you have to make going over to that side offensively and defensively. We felt partially because of the way we like some of the other pairs, but also because Nemo has confidence. You can hand him pucks and he gets himself out of trouble. It sets him in different spots to utilize his one-timer, different things like that can benefit him offensively. Defensively, there are some different reads and the angles are different and you have to read coverage. At times you’ll be put in tough spots with the puck. This is out of necessity at this point in time. But I’d say he’s well equipped to manage it and it keeps those other two pairs together.”