The New Jersey Devils are attempting to regroup and reload.
The Devils head into Monday night’s road clash with the Edmonton Oilers looking to bounce back from a disappointing 3-0 loss to the Calgary Flames on Friday.
“It’s 82 games. You’re not going to have your best every game, but we were in that game and could have won it,” New Jersey defenseman Brett Pesce said on Sunday. “We do have to find a way to get one point.”
The Devils, who will conclude a three-game trip on Monday, were locked in a scoreless tie with the Flames with less than six minutes remaining. Even so, New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said he expects his team to deliver a better performance.
“Look at how we skated the other night. I don’t think we had our legs. Our legs and our hands. We just didn’t execute like ourselves,” Keefe said. “It was just some things.”
The Devils used an extra day between games to travel west of Calgary to the mountains for some team bonding exercises and a getaway in the towns of Banff and Canmore.
“It was a chance to get away from the regular NHL routine,” Keefe said. “We’ve been through a lot in October, going to Prague, going out west. We’ve done a lot of travel, and this was a chance to get a breath.”
The Devils will be without forward Nathan Bastian, who suffered a broken jaw in a fight with Ryan Lomberg in Calgary. Bastian is expected to be out for a few weeks. Kurtis MacDermid likely will be in the lineup against Edmonton.
The Oilers will return home after a roller-coaster 4-2 win over the Flames on Sunday. Edmonton squandered a two-goal lead but pulled away thanks to Zach Hyman’s power-play goal midway through the third period.
Edmonton has won two games since star captain Connor McDavid sustained an ankle injury expected to sideline him for about three weeks.
Hyman, who had 54 goals last season, failed to score in the first 10 games before tallying in each of the last two clashes.
“I think I’ve proven I can score in the league,” Hyman said. “I was getting a lot of chances in the first 10 games; they just didn’t fall. It was nice to score a big one at a crucial moment.”
An even bigger key to Edmonton’s consecutive victories has been the play of Leon Draisaitl, who has three-point performances in three of his last four games.
“Look at these two games we’ve won, Nashville (a 5-1 victory on Thursday) and (Calgary). He’s really stepped up his game. … You need people stepping up,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Your best players have to be your best players on most nights, and so far he has. I can’t say enough about what he’s been providing.”
Hyman went a step further with his praise of Draisaitl’s ability to take over being the leader.
“We’re very fortunate. Not only do we have the best player in the world, but we got the second-best player in the world, in my opinion,” Hyman told Sportsnet.
