SHELDON KEEFE MEDIA AVAILABILITY RECAP
DETROIT, MI – Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe addressed the media at 3:45 p.m. ET. He provided a few updates heading into the game.
Lineup Change
The Devils will make two lineup changes ahead of facing the Red Wings. The first is that defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic (knee) will make his season debut on the backend.
“We’ve been looking for a spot to get him back in,” Keefe said of Kovacevic. “He’s been feeling good for a while here. We knew he wouldn’t play both of the games in the back-to-back set. So this one flags, so he’ll come in tonight.”
Second, forward Luke Evangelista (illness) will miss the game with Stefan Noesen coming in.
“(Evangelista) ended up getting worse throughout the game last night,” Keefe said. “We didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask him to fly on a plane and play again on short rest. He stayed back in Jersey.”
Rebound
The Devils lost 4-1 to Ottawa on Monday night. But they get a chance to quickly erase the loss and make amends tonight against the Red Wings.
“We get right back to it. So, anytime coming off a loss, you do kind of want to get right back at it,” Keefe said. “So, that’s the positive side. Then on the other side of it is back-to-backs are a reality of the NHL, and you got to be able to regroup quickly, and get your energy to a point where you can get out and perform.”
Finish
The Devils have generated a lot of offensive zone time and scoring chances in the opening five games of the season. However, the club hasn’t found a way to score. Converting on its chances was an issue last year and previous seasons.
“A, we need some better finish,” Keefe said. “We’ve been around the net. We’ve had more than enough chances to score more than we have. Yet we haven’t obviously done it to the level necessary to get the amount of goals we need. So, just got to be hungry around the net. We got to get more time, even more time in the offensive zone, even though that has been a strength of ours. We got to continue to value that. A little more pace offensively to it. And then just bear down on the opportunities there, whether that means to actually finish it or find the next play that improves the percentages of the puck going in the net for us. And then just stay with the process that gives us those chances.”
Though it’s only five games in and no need to panic, the Devils do want to address the situation. They’re trying to find the balance between patience and adjustment.
“It is the challenge, right? Because it is early in the season and you want to give opportunities for guys to find their games,” Keefe said. “You want to give opportunities for lines to kind of find their rhythm. You make changes in the off-season, and you add players, and you move things around. You make a plan. You come into training camp, you have that plan, and you want to give it an opportunity. In particular, we’ve played five games here now, but up until this week, the games have been really spread out. There hasn’t been any real rhythm to it. So, you want to give things an opportunity, but there certainly is an urgency to the situation of finding more goals.
“But yeah, we look at all the different things as coaches, and sometimes you got to look at the process, and then sometimes you look at the results, and you kind of look to marry the two and come up with a decision. For instance, the Jack Hughes line with Mantha and Bratt, haven’t got the production we would want or expect from that line yet. You look at a lot of the underlying numbers inside of that, and it’s been one of the best lines in the league in terms of what it’s produced versus what it’s given up. So, you look at that as something that may be working better than it appears, but we need results, and we need the puck to get over the line. So, we’ll look at all those things with all our lines.”
