Devils look for offense

While he thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics in Sochi, Jaromir Jagr of the Devils and the Czech Republic left the Winter Games without a medal.

One bad game against the United States ended those hopes. The recently turned 42yearold forward has other aspirations though, such as getting the Devils into the NHL playoffs over the next six weeks.

Jagr and fellow Olympians Patrik Elias, Marek Zidlicky and Damien Brunner returned to practice Monday as the Devils held their first full workout since the Olympic break more than two weeks ago.

The Devils enters the homestretch three points out of a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with 23 games left in the regular season. Plays resumes Thursday night against the Blue Jackets, who are ahead of the Devils in the standings.

Jagr doesn’t think the Devils need much to get back to the postseason after missing two of the previous three seasons.

“What we need to do is score the one extra goal a game,” Jagr said. “We need to keep the same defense we played. The goaltenders have been awesome. We have to find the one extra, extra goal in the game. That would make a huge difference.”

The Devils’ 135 goals this season is the secondfewest total in the NHL, and the problem has been compounded by the team’s ineptitude in the shootout. It has lost all eight shootouts and 12 straight dating to last season.

“If you look at all the games we played, one goal is the difference,” Jagr said.

Coach Pete DeBoer spent time Monday working on getting the puck up the ice quickly and getting shots on goal. However, he doesn’t want offense at the price of defense.

When the team reported, DeBoer had them watch video of Canada’s defensive play in winning the gold medal.

“They were the best team in the tournament,” DeBoer said. “They were a lot like we want to play. They were defensively responsible ... and they found a way to generate enough offense. They weren’t blowing teams out, 6 or 71. There was a lot of good stuff.”