Nemec Out, As Wounded Devils Host Ducks | PREVIEW | New Jersey Devils

Facing Anaheim’s Speed

The Ducks are built on a lot of speed, skill and offense. Their quick transition attack gave the Devils a lot of problems when the two teams met in California – a 4-1 Anaheim win on Nov. 2.

“They’re very dangerous on the rush. It’s all four lines, all D pairs,” Keefe said. “They have a lot of offense and skill. They lead the league in odd-man rushes and rush opportunities. They’re going to be coming with a lot of speed as we saw out in Anaheim.

“Shift to shift, we’re going to have to manage the puck well, be very structured and patient, and be good on special teams. All those things have to come together.”

One area to prevent the Ducks, who have the NHL’s 2^nd-best offense with 2.52 goals per game, from gaining speed and getting to their rush game is smart play in the neutral zone.

“Getting the puck through the neutral cleanly and be above, speed,” Keefe said. “If we can do a good job of getting through the neutral zone then it’s going to be about our play in the offensive zone.”

And when the Devils are in the offensive zone, they don’t want their D to be passive. They still want them pinching and trying to add offense. The importance of the club’s F3 and reloading will be key to prevent against any Anaheim’s transition.

“I’d say the reloads are the bigger part of it,” Keefe said. “We need our D to be aggressive, otherwise we’ll be backing up and skating backwards and retreating into our zone and that’s not good either. We need our D to be on their toes and aggressive. Forwards have a great responsibility to give us the necessary support to allow the D to play freely.”