New Jersey Devils: 3 Takeaways From Schedule Release

Lots of Road Trips. Lots of Homestands.

The schedule has lots of long trips and long times at the Prudential Center. This is obviously to reduce travel due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. It’s obviously smart to keep players and coaches in places for longer periods of time. This reduced movement in general will benefit the players, too. With so many back to backs, it’s better not to have as many trips from Canada to Washington D.C. It’s also great there’s no Western Canada road trip this year. As nice it is to see Connor McDavid and Elias Pettersson, it isn’t so great to watch when the start time is 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

There are three instances where the Devils go on a four-game road trip (one of them is actually five games). They have two homestands that are a minimum of four games as well. It will be a lot of sleeping in their own beds for the Devils players. At least they can get in their own routine.

This is going to be very good for a young Devils team. Sometimes players in their early 20s have trouble getting used to the rigorous travel demands of the NHL season. This will allow them to ease into it, even if it’s going to be a sprint to the finish.