Devils seek to regain early-season form

NEWARK, N.J. --New Jersey Devils coach John Hynes provided a stern message during practice at the Barnabas Health Hockey House at Prudential Center on Tuesday. His players received it.
"I think the message was deserved, it was blunt and I don't think anyone in here would disagree with him," defenseman John Moore said. "He kind of spoke for all of us in that if you're not [ticked] off I think there's something a little bit wrong with you."

A month ago the Devils were coming off a fifth straight win, their ninth of the season, and had moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference after 15 games. But it's been a struggle ever since. The Devils have lost three straight and are 3-6-3 in their past 12 games since Nov. 17 while allowing 47 goals (3.93 per game).

"The thing we've talked about in this room is our battle level," defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. "We're an organization that traditionally plays a structured game, and I believe we're still playing with that structure but we're not playing hard enough. Our practice [Tuesday] was a step toward correcting that."
The compete level is the one area most of the players thought needed to improve.
"There's an identity with this team and this organization in terms of how we want to play and how hard we want to play, the attention to detail we want to have, but I think that has slipped here in this skid," Moore said. "The good thing is the level of compete is controllable and it ultimately starts and ends with us."
Even though left wing Taylor Hall missed eight games to have surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee on Nov. 16, Hynes would be the first to admit there's no excuse for the defensive lapses. Things came to a head in a 5-0 loss at the New York Rangers on Sunday, when New Jersey was dominated in its own zone, turned over the puck 17 times and equaled a season low with 19 shots on goal.
Hynes provided his players with plenty of video highlights from that game prior to practice.

"Our offensive compete, forecheck, and puck battles; all those things were non-existent against the Rangers, and that's why it felt like we didn't have a push in the game," Hynes said. "We haven't played to our ability, and it's about having answers and having a discussion about what we need to do to fix it.
"It's not emotional. It's more that this is where we need to go and these are the things we need to have happen in order to get ourselves back to a game we're proud of."
The Devils will have one more full practice Wednesday before playing the second of a four-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, MSG+ 2, NHL.TV)
"The coaches can put all the strategies and structures on the board and we can follow it the best we can but if we don't skate or compete it won't matter," defenseman Damon Severson said. "We're on a little decline and I can't pinpoint one certain area, but we have to compete and do what we can control in own mind and body."