Four Absent from Devils Practice | NOTEBOOK

NEWARK - After their overtime victory against the Islanders on Friday night, the Devils are back on the ice for a Saturday practice. The attendance was lighter than usual with the absence of three forwards and a defenseman.

Nico Hischier, who left the game against the Islanders with an upper-body injury, did not take part in practice, and neither did Erik Haula and Tomas Nosek. Defenseman Colin Miller, who was injured in practice on Thursday, was also absent.

Hischier, head coach Lindy Ruff indicated, is still being evaluated and the team will see where he is at come Monday. The Devils do not practice on Sunday. 

There was other encouraging injury news, as Ruff shared he's hopeful Haula will be available to practice on Monday, prior to departing for Montreal. He added that Haula was able to skate this morning on his own prior to practice. 

As for Nosek and Miller, neither were able to participate on the ice today.

Who's Next?

Even with the rash of injuries up front in New Jersey, there isn't any rush yet to try and fill a forward spot with a call-up from the Utica Comets. Both teams, New Jersey and Utica, are taking the wait-and-see approach, both teams dealing with their own injury situations. 

For the Devils that decision will likely come based on both Hischier and Haula's availability come Monday.

“We’ll see how this unfolds with Nico and where Haula is at," Ruff said, "(Utica's) got some injuries down there right now that they’re sorting out. So we’ll sort things out come Monday.“

Peak Power

The Devils power play went 4-for-5 against the Islanders on Friday night, with four different players scoring power play goals. It has been a bright spot of the early 2023-24 season for New Jersey, under the helm of associate coach Travis Green taking the charge with the man advantage. But it's not just the scheming and reading the opposition, it's about that extra percentage of hard work to hound down pucks. 

“The set plays have been working, but it all starts with how we’re hounding pucks on the forecheck off the draws," Jesper Bratt, who had three power play assists on Friday, said, "I think after shots we were always winning pucks back and then we get to stay in the zone and we really came to a point where we put the work in in the zone instead of having to skate all the way back and re-start the new breakout. I think our forecheck overall to win pucks back. And then kind of the set plays started working out with that.”

Ondrej Palat, who had been playing on a power play unit with Dougie Hamilton, Alexander Holtz, Dawson Mercer, and Timo Meier, swapped over to a unit with Jack and Luke Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Tyler Toffoli. Palat was moved into the spot for the third period when Hischier was unavailable to play.

Palat earned the primary assist on Jack's power play goal in the third period. 

“I think we are winning battles at the beginning so we don’t have to change the puck and do breakouts, that’s the first part. And then the creativity of our players, it’s been going in, so that’s good. We just need to keep going and keep working hard.”

For an in-depth look and analysis of the Devils power play, check out NewJerseyDevils.com's Sam Kasan's most recent feature story: 

New associate coach Travis Green has taken over handling the power play from Andrew Brunette, who departed as head coach of Nashville. Though there hasn’t been a complete overhaul of the power play, some minor tweaks have been made for this year.

“I think he’s done a very good job of connecting the dots for a lot of guys,” Ruff said of Green. “Trying to get that whole group connected on what we’re trying to do power-play 1 to power-play 2. Changing up our breakouts. You saw (Friday) night two or three different breakouts that we were able to create some opportunities with.

“Inside the zone the motion is a little bit different. But the group as a whole is starting to mature, starting to see the plays, we’re hitting our marks, we had good traffic on some goals.”

Check out the full feature story here!

Did You Know?

Friday was the first time since March 1, 2014, that the Islanders gave up four power play goals in a single game. 

Oddly enough, that was also against New Jersey. 

The final score of the 2014 game was 6-1 for the Devils and it was Adam Henrique, Ryane Clowe Marek Zidliky and Eric Gelinas who scored on the power play.