Typically, during training camp, NHL teams will hold a practice session and at the end of said practice, the coaches will run the players through a bag skate.

For those unfamiliar, a “bag skate” is an on-ice conditioning session where players merely skate as fast as possible for a certain distance or duration. That could be skating from blue line to blue line. Or skating from the goal line to blue line and back. Or skating at full speed for 30 seconds. The point though, is the players must skate as fast as they can and try to maintain that pace for the entire sprint.

During training camp, bag skates are used at the end of practice as a way to work on the players’ on-ice conditioning (and if there is a bag skate used during the regular season it’s typically done as a punishment for poor performance or for the coach to send a message).

The Devils, however, opened their 2024 training camp in a different fashion. Instead of practicing and ending with a bag skate, new head coach Sheldon Keefe made each his players begin their day with a bag skate.

Good morning to them.

“We started practice today with a skating drill. To me, it’s a sprinting drill,” Keefe said. “That’s a reflection of the fact that we need our group to sprint, we need our group skating, we need our group to be relentless, we need great effort, and we need to be able to do that when it’s difficult and it’s hard and you’re not feeling great, you push through that.

“We led with (sprints) today. That’s a theme of my camps that I’ve run in the past. I wanted to be able to bring that here today as well.”

The Devils didn’t just start with a bag skate. They did 20 minutes of all-out sprinting. (It’s worth mentioning that the coaches did give the players a 40-minute break after the sprints before the start of their actual practice so that they could be properly recovered).

It’s often said that what you emphasize most in practice will have the biggest impact on the players’ mindset. Keefe made his biggest demand very clear: skating.

“We expect our guys to skate and work,” he said. “When you do that, you make up for so many mistakes. It’s a very imperfect game that we play, a game that’s filled with mistakes. So, the more we work, the tighter and more connected we play, we’ll be able to support one another and make up for mistakes.”

And that expectation landed loudly in the locker room. Just ask veteran forward Jesper Bratt what his biggest takeaway was from Day 1 of camp.

“The skating,” he replied. “We have to be an extremely high pace team. It doesn’t just mean with the puck. It’s without the puck. It’s getting quick to strike. It’s getting quick to get back to your D zone and tracking and forechecking. I think that standard was set right off the bat.”

“He wanted a lot of pace,” defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic reiterated. “Sprint to our spots, whether it be on the forecheck or defensive zone arrivals. A lot of it, you need pace to get there.”

Keefe, who is entering his first season as Devils head coach, wants to see his team sprinting at all times during the game and in all situations. It’s not just in his words, but in his actions. By starting off the entire training camp with a sprint sessions drives home the point.

“We talked about sprinting to our spots and a lot of the drills today were sprinting to your spot,” forward Paul Cotter said. “There’s always a place to be, always reloading and pushing each other.”

Speed is a critical part of Keefe’s vision for his club. But it’s only part of the puzzle.

“There are two things,” Keefe said. “First is a vision of where we want to go as a team, which is to be a group that builds something that is sustainable to where we can compete in our division, in the playoffs and ultimately competing for the Stanley Cup. That’s where we want to get to. We want to build something sustainable. So that’s our vision, to be that. We’re confident and know exactly who we are and how we get to where we want to get to.”

And the other?

“The other piece is what we’re going to look like, the vision for how we’re going to play, the habits that we need from our group.”

He added: “I made that really clear.”

Keefe made is really clear from the very beginning.