Devils Practice Tuesday After Rangers Win | NOTEBOOK

The Devils practiced Tuesday following a dominating 5-1 win against their Hudson River Rivals, the New York Rangers, Monday night. New Jersey has three straight days without a game, a nice break in the schedule, as the Devils have played the most games in the NHL (28).

Erik Haula and Tomas Tatar (day-to-day) were not on the ice for the practice session. Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe gave an update on Haula following practice.

"He's getting evaluated today," Keefe explained. "We'll have more information on him in the next day or so. To the extent of it, we're not expecting it to be anything too serious. He may very well be back in the next practice we just got to see how things settle. We don't play until Friday so it's a chance to use this time to get him looked at."

Below is the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

Practice, Practice, Practice

Tuesday's practice session started at noon and throughout the various drills the Devils were focused on execution and bringing intensity. Following 50 minutes of hard work, the Devils ended the on-ice session with some conditioning.

Without Haula, Kurtis MacDermid joined the third line as a placeholder. Below is the full workflow from practice:

Taking Advantage of Time

With a busy schedule start to the season, the Devils have had limited practice time. Today was an opportunity to not only hold a longer practice, but to bring a higher level of intensity to the on-ice session.

"We made the decision to practice today and take tomorrow off rather than practicing two days in a row," Keefe explained about this week's schedule. "That opened the door to have a little bit longer, more competitive practice. Harder grinding practice today, day off tomorrow. It's something that we've badly needed. Quite honestly we haven't had practice quite like this really since training camp. For me it was a good opportunity to turn it up a notch."

"We haven't had the opportunity to have too many longer practices," Meier shared Tuesday. "Practice today was all about competing, trying to get each other better in all aspects of the game, work on our detail. But also having a longer practice, a high intensity practice, to push everybody's pace."

Inside the Locker Room

Whether it's celebrating each other's success or hanging out away from the rink, the Devils have a close-knit team that has established a strong culture. Part of that culture is holding each other accountable so everyone can continue to be better every single day.

“It’s really important,” Meier said about accountability in the locker room. “We’ve got a great group that’s really tight and keeping each other accountable but it also makes you trust your teammates. If you go out there, work hard, know everybody’s got each other’s back, and we love coming to the rink every day. Good or bad days, we love playing for this team, we love each other, and we just got to build. Build block by block. But the camaraderie is really good. You got to keep everybody accountable and push each other every day.”

In his fourth season, Dawson Mercer has seen how this organization has grown. He's seen the impact of new additions and how this group has even grown since the start of the year.

“We bring in some key pieces and I think that’s definitely affected us in a positive way,” Mercer shared. “We still have the group of guys ever since I’ve started my career. I’ve really liked it so far and I think over time it’s going to keep on building. I think right now if you went back to the start of the year versus now, we’ve grown a lot.”

He Said It:

Timo Meier on the Devils pushing for better starts:

“Just being ready to play and also feeling a game like yesterday, when you have a good start, you put yourself in a better situation. When you start slow in the first 10 minutes, you go down a goal, you go down two goals, you’re just making life harder. We got to do a better job about that, putting ourselves in better positions coming right out of the gate. And the rest of the game, after our starts, we’ve been playing well, we’ve found the rhythm but later. It’s going to be a big focus.”

Roster News

Tuesday afternoon the Devils announced Mike Hardman was assigned to the Utica Comets in the AHL. Hardman was called up on Monday, and played on the Dowling line against the Rangers. He played 8:24 Monday night.

Rivalry Reunited

Monday night was the first time the Devils and the Rangers have faced off this season. For New Jersey, the game was an opportunity to get back in the win column and secure a quicker start. The Devils did both.

Jack Hughes' two goals and one assist paced the team while Jesper Bratt, Dougie Hamilton and Dawson Mercer each scored one. For full coverage of last night's win, click here.