2.
I just loved this quote from Luke Hughes on his older brother Jack.
"He’s the heart and soul of our team, pushes until the very end, he makes you want to compete more. Can’t say enough (good things).”
Us too, Luke. Us too.
3.
There was a running theme over the weekend of players sharing what it means to have the trust of head coach Keefe. And perhaps the most important thing about it is that it's coming from players who are feeling different things about their personal games.
Noesen is on a roll. But Paul Cotter is going through a drought. He hasn't scored since November 12 and can be particularly hard on himself.
Noesen has felt his coach's confidence, which has helped him establish a career offensive year. That feeling of confidence is also fully entrenched in a player like Paul Cotter, who has been experiencing an offensive drought.
On Saturday, Cotter got some touches alongside Jack Hughes at practice, and even in a practice setting, it's a responsibility that Cotter takes seriously. It's a different approach: elevate a player, give them the confidence, give them every opportunity, don't bury him.
It's something that Paul mentioned he had never felt before from a coaching staff and wants to be able to, as he says, 'give back' for offering him an opportunity.
“It’s the first time in my career that I’ve been shown that the coaching staff has confidence,” Cotter said. “I might be going through a drought right now, but they realize my potential and value to the team. So, it’s ‘how do we get Paul going a little bit?’ instead of negative and ‘Hey let's go, what are you doing?’ (...) For him to show that trust in me is all you can ask for and (I'm) just hoping I can give back."
When it came to game time against the Rangers, Cotter may not have contributed points, but he played a big part in the emotional swing of the game, dropping the gloves against Vincent Trocheck.
4.
Another day, another jab at Luke. Poor guy, already the youngest of the Hughes brothers, is the youngest of the Devils' locker room, too.
I was talking to Cotter the other day, and he not-so-subtly took a shot at Luke. I must emphasize that this was done in a joking manner! Paul told me about his initial experience of being traded to New Jersey and how welcoming everyone was... except Luke.
Here's what he jokingly told me:
“The team is awesome. I think every guy on the team reached out… (long pause) except Luke... but I talk to him enough now!”
5.
How long did Cotter sit in the penalty box while serving his five-minute major for fighting? It was just over eleven minutes!
Cotter and Trocheck were both sent to the box with 16:05 remaining in the period. Because it was a major, it meant they would have to serve all five minutes, no early release. And to get out of the box, you need a stoppage in play. There were a couple of stoppages during the five minutes, including one with just eight seconds left in the penalties.
As the eight seconds ticked off the clock both Cotter and Trocheck waited patiently for a stoppage in play, but that only came over six minutes later with no interruption to the game flow until just 4:27 remained in the period.
6.
Pretty wild to think that the Pittsburgh Penguins, as an entire 23-man roster, through 60 minutes of play, had fewer shots than Jack Hughes had just himself against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Twelve for the Penguins. Thirteen for Jack.
7.
Twelve shots, 20 shots, 20 shots, 17 shots, 14 shots, and 17 shots.
Here's a couple of ways the Devils over the course of the week have described the way in which they've locked in to the defensive system:
Paul Cotter:
“We’ve done a really good job, there were 12 shots last night. That’s pretty cool to see,” Cotter said. “At the start of the year we were trying to figure everything out. We have a lot of skill guys and different players that fill in different spots. It seems we’ve put it together pretty good. We have a great defensive style, we have a great offensive style. We can rely on the structure, which is what I think we did last night.”
Jonas Siegenthaler:
“We are a little more bullet proof in the neutral zone. The system fits now. You can really see it. Teams don’t get a lot. They have a hard time getting through the neutral zone. We’re doing a good job with pressuring them and standing up and forcing them to make a dump or the wrong play. That’s what we’ve been trying to do. I think we’re in a good stretch. We just have to keep going.”
Brenden Dillon:
“If we can make that our identity, per se, we want to be one of those hard to play against teams and be able to find ways, whether it’s a physical team or super highly-skilled, fast team, we’re going to have to find different ways to win on different nights. We’ve had a mixed bag of teams these last five or six, with under 17 shots, and just our commitment has been great. Different guys stepping up at different times. We’re committed right now.”
Seven straight games with 20 or fewer shots against is also a new NHL record (since the league started tracking shots in the 50's).
What it has boiled down to is one thing: the buy-in. And it's been a slow build to this moment but the payoff has come.
“I can’t think of a moment, or a lightbulb moment or a flip of the switch, but it’s been gradual in terms of it coming together," Keefe shared. "Some nights we’ve gotten rewarded for it and gotten wins, and some nights we haven’t scored enough to make it get in our favor, I think of the Toronto game as an example. The response of the players has been great. If you make a mistake, or you sense (the game) going the other way, it’s starting to get to the point where the players are on it, they’re on it, they’re talking about it and that’s a good feeling as a coach.”
First periods have been even better. Here's the shot totals by the opposition: 5, 5, 7, 5, 2, 1, 1 and 8.
8.
There's a ton of work that goes on behind the scenes every single day in the coach's office. We hear about how Ryan McGill is in charge of the defensemen and the penalty kill, and Jeremy Colliton spearheads the power play... each coach has their own set of responsibilities.
This week, head coach Sheldon Keefe let me in on a specific role that Sergei Brylin plays and for whose insight Keefe leans. It's what has also made him such a valuable assistant. Brylin never has his blinders on. What he looks for in his own players, he can scout just as easily in the opponent, Keefe says.
For his players, he'll seek to improve. For the opposition, they rely on his knowledge to exploit.
"He recognizes values, strengths and weaknesses and areas of improvement very quickly in players," Keefe said. "That's really what stands out, just his perspective in seeing a guy, there might be a player who you know has got some tremendous skill set, but has a lot of other areas of his game to work on. He's not blinded by the skill sets, he sees a lot of these other things, underneath. And, whether that's our own players, or a lot of his work is spent on preparing us for the opposition. His perspective there, the that things that he like recognizes and picks up on quickly, I think he has a real knack for."
9.
I'm just going to leave this here:
