Day 2 of training camp is underway for the Devils Friday at Prudential Center. The team really set the tone with the launch of camp on Thursday with some early pre-practice sprinting work.

The first group will hit the ice for practice around 10 a.m., followed by a scrimmage between Group 1 and 2. Stay tuned to the notebook for the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

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Practice (Group 1)

Group A:
Squires, Dowling, Stillman, Meier, MacKinnon, Laberge, Parent, Bratt, Bastian, Lazar, Cotter, Hughes

Hatakka, Misyul, Diotte, van de Leest, Zboril, Siegenthaler, Nemec, Kovacevic,

Hutchinson, Markstrom, Allen

— Catherine Bogart (@CatherineBogart) September 20, 2024

For the Culture

The word “culture” gets thrown around a lot in hockey vernacular. But what exactly does that mean?

“For me, culture is not a word that you can decide (its meaning). You can’t sit here and say, ‘this is the culture,’” new Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom said. “For me, it’s got to be created in the room or in the organization. And that’s why it’s a big word and it’s an important one. It has to come organically.”

Some players, such as defenseman Brett Pesce, have seen that culture is more than just a word. He watched how the entire culture for the Carolina Hurricanes, his home for the first nine years of his NHL career, shift under head coach Rod Brind’Amour in 2018.

“Every team and every training camp you go into and it’s, ‘we need culture,” Pesce said. “But before (Brind’Amour) came in, I was like, ‘OK, culture, fine, whatever.’ But then to know what it actually means and see how it changed the whole organization around, that was pretty cool for me to see. It opened my eyes. It gave meaning behind the word.

“And now, that word (culture), I don’t say that lightly anymore because I know it could legitimately effect the team, it could turn a team 180 (degrees).”

Forward Stefan Noesen also experienced that culture in Carolina, having played for the Hurricanes in the past two-plus seasons. He’s also been inside six different locker rooms in his career, including New Jersey’s from 2016-19.

“Bringing in the right people is the hardest part. You’ve got to bring in the right personnel,” Noesen said. “The other end is allowing the culture to be bred. It comes from the staff. It comes from the veterans. And with good teams, a coach leads.”

Just Win, Baby

Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom has a pretty simple philosophy.

“I don’t want to lose a hockey game,” he said.

Simple enough. Though much harder in execution. But when it comes to goals, Markstrom is certainly setting the bar pretty high.

“That’s where the bar should be,” he said. “You want to set the standard where winning should be normal, and then losing should freaking suck. You should just hate losing so much that winning should be normal. You have to normalize that.”

So, then, what goes into not losing a hockey game?

“It’s not what you see in the games, the 60 minutes you play. That’s such a small part of everything we do,” Markstrom said. “It’s everything that’s gone on all summer, it’s the sour taste going into the summer.”

Markstrom’s former team, the Calgary Flames, did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Which meant his season came to a premature end and an early return to his home in Sweden.

“I was in Sweden in April (last year),” he said. “It’s dark. I don’t want to be in Sweden in April. I want to still be playing hockey. That’s something you carry with you all throughout the summer.”

Thankfully now, the summer is over. And the time to not lose a hockey game is about to begin.