DEVILS LOOK TO GENERATE MORE CHANCES
Offensively, New Jersey put together several connected shifts against their Saturday opponent by efficiently navigating the neutral zone. Replicating that success tonight will be vital.
“I thought we got through the neutral zone quite well,” Keefe noted. “They were above the puck a lot with lots of numbers, but I thought that we managed that. We didn't force the play and turn it over. We made plays in terms of freezing them in the middle of the rink and finding some speed in the wide lanes. So that allowed us to enter with control a lot and get to these spots I'm talking about, and then we just got to find ways to get to their net, to get on the inside a little bit more, and that would be the next piece offensively, which I thought, again, took us a little bit too long to get to last night. So we got to have that mindset from the start tonight.”
Getting to the interior and generating high-danger chances is a clear priority for the coaching staff.
“That's going to be a big part of it. And then offensively, we've got to do a better job of getting people to the inside when shots are arriving a lot quicker,” Keefe added. “We were a second late last night. We got to be more urgent to recognize when shots are going to be taken and have that mentality of just getting to the interior of the ice. I thought we did a lot of things well to get to those spots, but not enough at the finish.”
LINEUP REMAINING THE SAME
Regarding the lineup, Keefe confirmed he plans to maintain his bottom-six forward group, relying on combinations that have provided steady depth.
“Going to stay with them,” Keefe said. “I just don't see many options there, frankly. I like what McLaughlin and (Brian) Halonen brought yesterday, actually. They didn't get a lot of minutes. Jack playing the way that he is right now and seemingly can play forever, it's hard to use the depth. But I thought those guys did a nice job with the shifts they had, defended hard. And the Glass line, I think they had some chances of their own yesterday. So on the road here, becomes a little bit more of a challenge. We'll monitor it throughout, see if we need to maybe take some guys from the top two lines and move them around a little bit. But in terms of the bottom six, I like that mix as it is right now.”
Managing ice time for the fourth line remains an ongoing balancing act, primarily due to the heavy lifting from the top lines.
“It's an interesting question. I think you never really want to have any of your guys below 10 minutes,” Keefe detailed after Halonen (5:56) and McLaughlin (4:34) were limited Saturday. “I think ideally, special teams become a factor, but I think every situation is different.
"Jack is such a beast on his own because he can seemingly play forever. His engine is so high, and he has so much confidence right now, and he's standing up on the bench a lot. He's wanting to be out there. So when he's giving you the signs as a coach that he's fresh and he wants to be on the ice, it's hard to not get him out there. And then obviously, we've been getting scored on a lot on our fourth line, and that in itself makes it difficult to trust them and get them out there in different spots, which is why we've changed the mix a little. But I think you never want to see any of your guys below 10 minutes, and we've been that pretty consistently for a good stretch here now. I don't necessarily see it changing, frankly, the way that it's been going with Gritsyuk being out and Jack and Nico's lines playing the way they have.”
