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Devils Notebook: Keefe Tweaks Hughes Line; Forecheck, Forecheck, Forecheck

Sheldon Keefe emphasizes the forecheck he praised worked so well on Sunday and makes a tweak to Jack Hughes’ line on Monday.

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New Jersey Devils
Credit: James Nichols/NJDHockeyNow

Following a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday night, the NHL-heavy New Jersey Devils lineup that was iced received the day off on Monday. However, practice resumed on Monday for those who didn’t dress Sunday, and there were still certainly some notable takeaways.



The Devils travel to North to Canada, where they will face the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday evening. It’s likely that this is the group who will travel, whereas the Sunday evening group will likely play at the Prudential Center on Wednesday vs. the Washington Capitals.

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe was quite adamant about the things the Devils needed to clean up in their game, which ultimately led to the defeat. However, one thing Keefe praised was the Devils’ buy-in on the neutral zone forecheck.

As a result, Keefe made sure that the non-game group from Sunday got their reps in on Monday by instructing Jack Hughes and Co. to take part in some intense forechecking drills.

Despite the loss, Keefe praised his group from Sunday night for executing their new-look forecheck which he believed was executed well for it’s first run in game action.

“I would say I thought they did well on the forecheck, considering that’s new for us and for this group, the structure of it,” Keefe explained. “I thought they did a really good job of that for the most part. We did lots of good things there. Some teaching points, for sure, but some very positive things we’ll be able to utilize and reinforce why we want to do that.”

One thing is for certain. A Sheldon Keefe practice is never light. After all, training camp isn’t supposed to be easy, and we’ll see what in-season practices look like. But Keefe’s message from the get-go has been consistent. Work, and work hard. Otherwise, you could find yourself on the way out.

With Jesper Bratt skating with Nico Hischier and Tomas Tatar on Sunday, Hughes and Timo Meier practiced alongside Dawson Mercer on Monday.

It was Mercer’s first look inside the top-six, which is his anticipated place, however, perhaps next to Hischier instead. Still, Mercer didn’t look out of place, and he’s a viable option to play with Hughes if things change.

Here was Monday’s workflow:

Devils Monday Lines

Forwards

Timo Meier — Jack Hughes — Dawson Mercer

Mike Hardman — Justin Dowling — Kevin Labanc

Samuel Laberge — Filip Engaras — Max Willman

Kurtis MacDermid — Xavier Parent — Brian Halonen

Nathan Légaré

Defensemen

Santeri Hatakka — Simon Nemec

Jakub Zboril — Daniil Misyul

Topias Vilen — Seamus Casey

Will Mackinnon — Mikael Diotte

Goaltenders

Jake Allen

Isaac Poulter

Tyler Brennan

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