Devils Are Back Playing Stateside | 10 TAKEAWAYS

There’s something nice about being back home, after a trip to Prague and getting back into the rhythm of regular life and the regular season. Of course, it was an incredible trip for many reasons, the least of which were the four points, but now being back in North America, a bit of normalcy to your routine lets you fall into the rhythm of the day-in, day-out routine of a long season.

So let's get to it with another edition of 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

1.

We're a bit removed from Prague now, but I wanted to share this quote from Brenden Dillon. We spoke once we got back from overseas and I appreciated this observation he made. I asked him what the most valuable thing he, and the team, may have learned about themselves during preseason and the opening two games in particular.

Here was his answer:

"I think that we've just got, like, almost a quiet confidence to ourselves. It's something where it doesn't really matter what people are talking about us or writing about us, what TV is saying. We know internally what we expect of ourselves. I don't think we ever feel we're out of a game."

Of course, it doesn't mean they'll win every game, but having a solidified belief that they are never out of a game can go a long way to winning games that perhaps the overarching numbers dictate they shouldn't. To me, having that quiet confidence and belief they're never out of it speaks to a maturity and an early belief in what they're trying to do and accomplish inside every game on top of the wins.

2.

What you didn’t see… when the team insisted that Sheldon Keefe take to the middle of the stretch circle at practice on the eve of facing the Toronto Maple Leafs… Keefe, from outside the circle embraced the moment full-force and slid into the center, even spinning around, full circle, on his knees to plenty of laughs.

"That was a first for me,” Keefe said when I asked him about this moment. “A first for me. The guys asked me to jump on in there. We had some fun with it. It was good.”

You could tell the moment was meaningful. It was also a first for him.

3.

Go back to 2022 at the draft in Montreal… Seamus Casey was sitting on the board, still available as the teams entered Day 2.

And quickly New Jersey scooped him right up. They felt lucky right from the beginning.

Go back to Mark Dennehy, Director of Pro Scouting for the Devils, and see what he had to say after Day 2 of the draft, that started with drafting Casey:

“Elite skater, this is a guy that most, a lot of public lists had as a first-rounder. We had guys in our group that had him potentially No. 1 in the U.S.," Dennehy said, "Just an elite skater, instant breakout. I don’t like the term ‘small’, I mean there is small but a lot of times these defensemen are short. He’s a young man with a serious sense of purpose. When you sit down and talk to him, you know that he’s not going to be denied. We’re really thrilled to get him and even more thrilled is where we got him.”

While it could be easy to get carried away in excitement, I think the big lesson from the first six games for Casey was summed up perfectly by Sheldon Keefe. There was anticipation about what type of offensive game he could bring but it's how he has begun to establish his defensive game first that is the true marker for how he's grabbed the bull by the horns to start his pro career.

"As much as the goals are great, if his game defensively is a mess and it's a fire drill when he's on the ice, he's not going to be able to stay here," Keefe said of his rookie defenseman after the game against Utah. "But his defensive game, he's playing with intelligence. For an undersized defenseman, he plays his body so well. He doesn't complicate things for himself or his teammates."

4.

Something that has struck me about Paul Cotter from the first day he arrived is how he has this ability to embrace whatever type of role on a team is given to him on any particular day and run with it, no matter 1st or 4th line.

We talked about it a few weeks ago and he mentioned that it wasn't always like that for him. It was a learned thing, to embrace the roles you're given and how they differ and what each line is tasked with doing. He says he wasn't always built like this, to embrace any given role, but that he learned a lot from some of his former teammates with the Vegas Golden Knights:

I started by asking him about the versatility in his game :

"What do they want me to do? Maybe a fourth line guy that kills people, or I'm going to be the first line guy that can make plays. I honestly think, it's not built into most guys. I mean, I definitely wasn't that way when I first started. When you're on the fourth line, you're like, "Really, come on, I want to be playing up the lineup or more ice time". And just from being a couple of years in the league, seeing some guys do it properly, like William Carrier, Keegan Kolesar are Nick Roy, they just embrace it, and that makes everyone around them better. Like, okay, 'these guys are going, it's not 'Oh my gosh, I wish I was playing more' It's like if I want to play more, I'm going to work hard to get there.

"But you've got to be a team guy too," he added. "But versatility, I think, is my best asset. I can play on the first line, I can play on the fourth. Wherever they need me. You get to a point in your game where you're not going to be a first-line star on every team. So you always have to take pride where you're at."

5.

Did the trade from Vegas to New Jersey spark something more in Cotter's game?

He's certainly got that edge.

"I love it, because (New Jersey) wants me. They see something in me. When I see that, it’s like ‘Okay, now it’s time to give back. I want to perform, to show everyone else that these guys were right. That’s where it comes in, first line, fourth line… whatever it is, as long as we win the game."

NHL Network analyst Mike Kelly had these Cotter stats after the first week of the season:

Cotter is second in goals (4), first in rush goals (4) third in rush chances (7).

Doing just fine taking on any role that is asked of him!

6.

I wish you could have heard the boisterous excitement and cheering when Tomas Tatar, the self-proclaimed "Champ" arrived for his first round of pregame soccer ahead of the first home game at Prudential Center.

As he turned around the corner from the locker room to the soccer-playing area just outside the entrance to the ice, you could hear his familiar "The champ is here!" catchphrase as he joined in the game.

No one loves the competition of pregame soccer more than Tatar.

7.

There may be no one more excited for Brett Pesce's eventual debut as a New Jersey Devil than his father, Brian. He, I've been told (and we've seen on social media!) is quite the character. And now that Brett plays close to his childhood home of Tarrytown where his parents still live... well, Brian, Brett told me before the start of the season, was going to purchase season tickets.

From the sounds of it, I'm definitely looking forward to catching Mr. Pesce at a game!

8.

Jake Allen will forever be the answer to this trivia question:

Which NHL goaltender was the first in league history to win at least one game against 33 different franchises?

Allen's win against the Utah Hockey Club cemented his name in the league's history books, also becoming the first goaltender to be Utah in their franchise history.

9.

Seeing as the Devils just saw Brent Burns on the ice in Carolina, I thought it would be a good time to relay a couple of stories that Brenden Dillon had from his time as a teammate with one of the more interesting characters in all of hockey.

It sounds like Burns was the one to first introduce Dillon and Brett Pesce this summer after both signed in New Jersey. Burns of course, having played with both of them, Dillon in San Jose and Pesce most recently in Carolina, immediately gave Dillon and Pesce something to talk about: Burns.

"I think the first 20 minutes of talking to each other was about Burnsy," Dillon told me.

"Burnsy text Pesh and was like 'Dude, you're going to love Dilly', and then he did the exact same thing to me, saying 'Dilly, you're going to love my boy Pesh. I'm gonna miss him, we were just together the last few years."

So when he first met Pesce at the Devils facilities earlier this summer, Dillon approached Pesce and says: "Hey bro, I know we never met, but I feel like I know you, and I hope you know me and I hope you know we're gonna be boys. We've got a bunch of years together and it's gonna get fun." It was just one of those things where Burnsy just brought us together. The power of Brent Burns."

10.

Colleague Sam Kasan was ultra observant on Sunday at practice and noticed captain Nico Hischier after the whistle to signify the end of practice. He gathered his power play compatriots around the whiteboard for some further work to lead a discussion. Up until that point, the first power play unit, composed of Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Jack Hughes, and Dougie Hamilton hadn't quite found their groove with just a single goal for their unit.

Sam also spotted head coach Keefe peek his head in, listening to his players problem-solve as a unit on their own, as a group.

“You have to be on the same page,” Meier told Kasan. “There’s a structure to keep but if you work hard and are crisp, that’s where the talent is going to take over, that’s where you’re going to make plays if you’re disciplined in the job you have to do. The talent will take over. We have to simplify and work, and the talent will take over.”

Whatever was said in their group chat on the ice may have helped spark something. The Hischier unit has two goals in the past two games.