MORNING SKATE RECAP
The Devils held a morning skate on Tuesday afternoon before a same-day flight to and back from Montreal for a preseason contest against the Habs.
The lineup will not be particularly NHL heavy, not surprising considering the travel demands of the same day trip. Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Dougie Hamilton will not be playing.
“It’s a back-to-back and with the amount of time before depart for Prague we want to keep as many guys together as we can,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said of the lineup decision for tonight.
Former Canadien goaltender Jake Allen will make the trip and is the likely starter for the Devils.
Workflow…
Cotter – Lazar – Bastian
Hardman – Dowling – Lebanc
Foote – Bowers – Willman
MacDermid – Parent – Halonen
Siegenthaler – Kovacevic
Hatakka – Nemec
Vilen – Case
Allen
Daws
Top Line
The trio of Cotter, Lazar, Bastian may not be the flashiest line, but they are effective in their role. The threesome has a very similar mindset in terms of style of play. They all play hard, physicality, crash the net and are hard on the puck.
Though they are built differently – in terms of skillset, hands, speed – the similar mentality has made it for an easy quick blend for the trio.
“We just read off each other. It makes it easy when you know what each other is going to be doing. We keep it simple,” Cotter said. “They’re both awesome dudes. It makes it easy to talk about stuff. Communication is key. When it’s easy to talk to your linemates, it’s easy.”
The trio are also the most NHL seasoned group, which caught Cotter by surprise.
“That’s weird being considered a veteran,” he joked. “We’ll set the tone early with how we want to play.”
With the Canadiens icing a very NHL heavy team, the trio will see a lot of work.
“They need to continue to grow their chemistry,” Keefe said. “Those guys need to get the puck deep, make it difficult for the opposition to break out. They need to spend as much time in the offensive zone as they can.
“I’ll be leaning on those guys heavily. Montreal will have some of their best people playing.”
Building Chemistry
Defensemen Jonas Siegenthaler and Johnathan Kovacevic have paired together for all of training camp. They worked together in Sunday night’s first preseason game.
“He’s a big guy, he can skate, he can shoot,” Siegenthaler said of Kovacevic. “He plays pretty simple, which I like. It’s very predictable. Which makes it easy on me. I try to do the same.
“If we work together and are connected, we’re pretty good.”
Keefe liked them together so far.
“Siegs is himself and do what he does no matter who his partner is. There’s stability in that from a coaching perspective,” Keefe said.
