Full Group of Vets Practice Together at Camp | NOTEBOOK

As we get down close to the wire of the regular season beginning, today is the first day of training camp where all the veteran players are on the ice together. With two practice sessions at the same time, the main group was on the Prudential Center ice, while the others were on the practice side.

On the main ice were: 

Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Toffoli, Timo Meier, Erik Haula, Dawson Mercer, Tomas Nosek, Curtis Lazar, Nate Bastian, Michael McLeod Chris Tierney, Jonas Siegenthaler, Dougie Hamilton, John Marino, Luke Hughes, Brendan Smith, Colin Miller, Simon Nemec, Vitek Vanecek, Akira Schmid and Erik Kallgren. 

Stay tuned for the latest from New Jersey Devils practice throughout the day!

Groupings

With the Devils splitting their remaining camp players, the "veteran" group is the closest resemblence of the final lineup for the opening of the regular season. And below was the workflow...

The Devils split up their power play into two lethal forces. It wouldn't be accurate to call one the first or second power play, since they're pretty evenly split. So below are the two groups.

PPa: Hamilton, Holtz, Meier, Mercer, Hischier
PPb: LHughes, JHughes, Bratt, Toffoli, Palat

-Sam Kasan

Getting the Band Back Together

One of the reasons that the Devils split their groups the way that they did for Tuesday’s practice was to get the bulk of the lineup on one sheet of ice for the first time in camp. Until now, many of the players were separated while skating with different groups, such as Jack Hughes in Group A finally getting to practice with Nico Hischier, who had been in Group B.

“I want to be out there making them better and have them make me better. Training camp, that’s how it goes,” Haula said. “It’s a good chance for the young guys to show what they’ve got. I’m impressed with a lot of them this year. But now it’s a week until puck drop so we have to get dialed in here.”

“It feels good. Feels like I haven’t skated with some guys for a while so it was good to be out there with everyone,” Hischier said.

Power Split

The Devils have a new power-play look, or looks. As noted above, the team has split up their players for a more balanced attack over two units instead of loading up on one unit.

A two-tiered attack makes a lot of sense considering the depth that the Devils have of skill. And it’s a testament to the talent that the Devils possess.

“It keeps the competitive level high,” Hischier said. “It’s a good problem.”

New associate coach Travis Green will be in charge of running the power play. While he’s been implementing different systems and points of emphasis throughout training camp, Tuesday was the first opportunity to have his actual units working together.

While the team certainly has goals in mind, Hischier wasn’t about to share those concepts.

“I’m definitely not saying it in the media what we’re trying to do,” he laughed. “We talk a lot about it. There are things we want to achieve. Just get back to the simple things, putting pucks on the net. Have guys around the net.”

He Said It

Ruff on the leeway given to Luke Hughes: “There’s a fence out there that you try to stay within. Sometimes it’s an electric fence and it bounces you back in. The electric fence is probably the coach if you hit that wire. We know what he can bring. … It’s understanding when to put risk and when not to put risk in your game.”