Devils Practice Before Road Trip | NOTEBOOK

The Devils are practicing Monday afternoon at Prudential Center. Following practice the club will fly to St. Louis to start a two-game road trip.

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

Allen Cleared

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said Jake Allen will travel with the team to St. Louis and has been cleared to play.

"Jake is available. He'll rejoin the group," Keefe said.

"I despise being out the lineup," said Allen, who suffered an upper-body injury a week ago against Colorado. "I was hoping to be back Saturday, but I just needed a couple more days. Good to be back."

Practice Info

The Devils had all their expected players on the ice for practice. That included injured forward Curtis Lazar, whom Keefe called day-to-day with his knee injury.

"Curtis his first real, hard full practice with us today," Keefe said. "Very encouraging sign."

The Devils also recalled goaltender Nico Daws for practice. After practice he was returned to Utica of the AHL.

5 Takeaways from Fitzgerald

Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald met with the media Monday morning prior to the team’s practice and flight to St. Louis for a two-game road trip. Full transcript available here.

Here are the five biggest takeaways from that conversation.

1. State of the Team

The Devils are 33 games into the 2024-25 season. They have a 20-10-3 record and are second in the Metro Division, one point behind leader Washington. The Devils’ 43 points are the second most in the Eastern Conference (behind the Capitals’ 44).

Fitzgerald was asked how he felt about the team’s current state.

Full story here.

They Said It

Lazar on his return: “It’s been a long couple months, but also it kind of flew by. My body is in a good place. It’s good to be around the guys. The laughs, the banter, the work. It’s all fun. It’s great to be back out there.”

They Said It 2:

Keefe on leadership buy-in to the defensive game: “Every player on our team needs to be committed to it. Our best players need to be committed to it because they play the most. If they don’t have that, then you’re taking a third or more than a third of the game that we’re lacking what’s required to be a consistently good team. Those guys have to buy into that, and they have.”