Devils Locker Room: Simple Q, ‘What’s Been the Biggest Challenge Recently?’ (+)

NEWARK—The New Jersey Devils are finally back home after a tough 1-4-1 road trip over the last few weeks. Ever since returning from the holiday break, the Devils haven’t been the same team we saw go into Christmas at a scorching hot pace. Some regression to the mean was to be expected, but plenty of points were left on the table out west and in Manhattan. So, what was the biggest challenge amid this tough stretch of games for the Devils?

The good news is, as opposed to some divided locker rooms we’re currently witnessing in the league today, the stretch of games has only brought the group closer to each other.

“We’ve just got to continue to stick together, you know? Not play the blame game or get down on one another, which has been great,” Brenden Dillon explained to New Jersey Hockey Now. “We’ve still been positive in here, which has been nice. We’ve still got a lot of runway here where we’ve got to continue to get better.

“You see teams around the league go through losing streaks, and when you start making it all, ‘Oh it’s this guy or that guy,’ or ‘it’s this reason or that reason.’ I mean, we just got to play better. And when I say play better, that’s just trust what has worked for us. And when you trust it, you know we’re probably gonna have a good chance of having success.”

After speaking with a handful of different players and the head coach, we asked them all one simple question.

“What’s been the biggest challenge for the group to overcome amid this tough stretch?”

The responses were all a little different, however, it all pointed back to the same answer.