Catching Up | 10 TAKEAWAYS

We're playing catch up in this week's 10 Takeaways... after a lengthy break for the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Devils have been back to work and out on one of their longest road stretches of the season.

Friday was a first for most as the team hit the ice at the Olympic Oval in Utah, or as Brenden Dillon called it "an ice rink in an ice rink".

It was a neat experience that brought out some good laughs, too. After their regular practice, the guys tried parts of the speed skating oval out (in their regular hockey skates) and had some good laughs. And style too! Check out that form from Dougie Hamilton!

A little bit of levity at the end of Devils practice as the team gears up for the final 21 games of the regular season. It's a time of year where teams are stepping up big time to make statements, round out their game, refine their game and make that final push. For the Devils, for now anyways, they're going to have to do it without the services of one of their top defenemen in Jonas Siegenthaler. He underwent a procedure over the break that will keep him out right now, but it also means a big opportunity has presented itself.

That's where we start this week's 10 Takeaways, because opportunity has presented itself to both Luke Hughes and Seamus Casey and both are prepared to embrace it.

1.

Luke Hughes is steadily adding more weaponry to his arsenal, and with the absence of Siegenthaler, he’s had to put it on display.

Over the past few games we’ve seen him deployed on the penalty kill, a new area where the coaching staff is adding trust into Luke’s game.

During the last three games, Luke has combined for 4:19 shorthanded minutes, so I asked head coach Sheldon Keefe for his thoughts on why this was the right time for Hughes to begin taking on the role. Opportunity and process of elimination is one thing, like with Siegenthaler out, but you've also got to have trust that the person out there will get the job done.

“He should be able to take on that,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Hughes on the PK. “He’s a young guy. He should be able to learn and grow with every day that comes his way, every opportunity that comes his way. He’s everything you want in a penalty killer, he’s big, he’s got a long stick, he’s fast, can close space quickly. I like the job that he’s done there. I like that he’s embraced it.

“With (Siegenthaler) out, there will be continued opportunity for him and others to take on a little bit more and he’s done a nice job.”

In the first 48 games of the season Luke logged 5:18 of shorthanded ice time. He's nearly equaled that in his last three games alone.

2.

The first thing that Seamus Casey talked about when he arrived back in New Jersey after his most recent call-up was “it’s an opportunity”.

Of course, he hopes that Jonas Siegenthaler will be back soon and healthy from his injury, as we all hope. However, the reality is that it has opened up an opportunity for someone to step in and seize the moment.

Seizing the moment has happened in two ways among two young defensemen. We’ll start with Casey, who has grabbed hold of an opening in the lineup.

And then we’ll get to Luke.

It took just one game before the coaching staff inserted Casey into the lineup – against the Predators in Nashville – and the impact was immediate.

Casey didn’t look out of place and picked up right where he left off, wiring a shot into the net.

"Some beginner's luck. A couple pucks finding their way through," Casey said. "(The goal) found its way home. I don't know if there are any tricks to it, just a lucky shot."

But it wasn’t just luck. Because if you watch carefully, it’s an incredibly skilled, high-awareness play that gets it all to pan out.

"It shows the confidence he has," Keefe said post-game. "He’s right up there at the top of the zone, he’s got Jack loaded and ready for a one-timer and looks him off and shoots in the net but you watch that goal back a little bit closer and he sold it. The goaltender was starting to edge over to Jack and put his weight over there so he was unable to cover that side. To me that shows skill and intelligence and confidence. All of that is what makes a guy like him have four goals in the NHL already."

We'll certainly see Casey go through the ups and downs of being a rookie but when there's moments like the one we just saw from him, it's certainly exciting to see what the Devils have developing in a young Casey.

3.

Dougie Hamilton has hit a Top-5 franchise record.

Against Nashville, his two-point, milestone night, was his 39th multi-point game with the Devils, taking over fifth all-time on the franchise list for multi-point games in franchise history. He now sits behind Brian Rafalski’s 54 — a ways to go to crack the top four.

Scott Niedermayer owns the record with a whopping 96 multi-point games.

4.

One of these days, I’m going to have to ask for a screenshot or a quick glance because I think I’m starting to develop a little FOMO. Twice now, I’ve heard about this D-Union group chat between Brenden Dillon, Brett Pesce, and Luke Hughes, and it truly has spiked my curiosity.

It was Pesce who originally let us all in on the group chat and just last week, talking to Dillon, he also brought it up.

“Pesh, Luke and I we all sit together and we’ve got a group chat going on. We have so much fun together the three of us. Whether it’s in the mornings, whether it’s chatting up what we did the day before or what the kind of day has ahead of us, all three of us are in different stages of life too. So from the one guy playing video games (Luke), to the one guy with his kids (himself) to the one guy that went home for his mom’s birthday and forgot his pair of sneakers he needed (Pesce), we have so much fun.”

I need to find out what the name of this group chat is and what the picture is.

5.

It's exciting times for one of the Devils goalie prospects. Make sure you check out this video on Mikhail Yegorov. He's a hot commodity you're going to want to keep your eyes on!

6.

Nico Hischier took a whopping 30 faceoffs against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night, winning 56.7 percent of them. It’s actually not the most he’s ever taken in a game – that number is 34 – but to see ‘30’ next to a players stat line for faceoffs can be a bit jarring. It’s a huge number and just goes to show just how much this team missed having him at the dot for the six games he was injured and just how important he is; in every situation; to this team.

In his 506 games, this was only the 12^th instance where he clocked in at 30 or more faceoffs in a game.

We’ve been so spoiled to watch the maturity of Hischier develop before our eyes. Sometimes it feels like he doesn’t get the respect league-wide that he deserves.

Don’t take it from me, take it from Brenden Dillon, who spoke about how playing in the West he had always heard about the skill and talents of a player like Hischier, but because he was so far removed from it, didn’t quite grasp it fully.

Until now. Until they became teammates.

“Nico is as complete of a 200-foot player as I’ve ever played with, I’ve ever seen. A guy who you just want him on the ice if you’re down a goal with a minute left and you want him if you’re up a goal with a minute left. I think that’s one of the highest compliments you can give somebody, that you want them on the ice in any type of facet. Powerplay, PK, trying to score a goal, trying to defend a goal, and he does that.”

7.

Had so much fun talking to Tomas Tatar, Timo Meier and Nico Hischier about being the disc jockeys of the Devils locker room, and as always not everything makes it into the final story.

Like, what does Tomas Tatar do when country music sometimes makes an appearance in the locker room? A complete deviation from the sort of music that he likes?

"A lot of Canadian guys go with the country (music), and that's like space miles from my resume.

Does he even stick around to listen?

"I rather not be in a room. I'll come to dress but it's very rare," he joked.

8.

And another one from Timo Meier:
Who would he maybe least trust to run the music in the locker room (keeping in mind, of course, this is all in jest)?
“Merc. He’d probably play some sort of hunting or fishing music.”

9.

Ondrej Palat keeps the 500^th point puck from the other night in Nashville. For the first time in NHL history, two players combined for their 500^th career point on the same goal when Dougie Hamilton assisted on Palat’s goal against the Predators.

We joked after the game with Dougie about potentially cutting it in half, but in the end it was Palat who kept it; he did score the goal after all.

It was also just the first time in league history that they would have to even consider cutting it in half. According to the NHL, Palat and Hamilton connecting for their 500^th points was just the second time in league history that two players hit the same milestone in the same game (also Chris Drury and Scott Gomez on Feb.1, 2008) but it was, more significantly, the first time it had ever happened on the same goal.

10.

How important was an experience like the 4 Nations Face-Off to a player like Jesper Bratt, other than the honor of playing in the Tre Kronor jersey?

It gave him a taste of what it may feel like as the post-season runs the Devils hope to go on run deeper and deeper and the competition runs fiercer and fiercer. It’s one of the things that when I had the chance to sit with general manager Tom Fitzgerald in Montreal during the tournament, he hoped that his young players, in particular, would gain from the mid-season tournament.

“It was the highest-paced game I’ve ever played. And the hardest games I’ve ever played,” Bratt admitted. “For me and Jack, we experienced three and four games there, we haven’t had the most playoff experience. We’ve played one playoff year, or six in eight for (me). For us to really get to play on that stage and in those games, that was something we learned a lot from. We got to experience it, and we’ll grow even more out of that.”