Andrew Gross

Staff Writer, @AGrossRecord

OK, so the news today was Devils general manager Ray Shero's sitting down with NJ Advance Media’s Chris Ryan and me for a 50-minute chat about the state of the team.

So, a 50-minute chat means about an hour-plus of transcribing.

But here are the bullet points with the Devils, who host the Flyers on Thursday night then play at Pittsburgh on Friday night before heading into the Christmas break, mired in a seven-game losing streak (0-6-1), the franchise’s worst slump since starting 2013-14 at 0-4-3:

• Shero gave coach John Hynes his “100 percent” backing and said Hynes is absolutely the right man to coach the team — something not only recognized within the organization but around the NHL, too. Hynes is highly thought of in league circles.

• Shero said the Devils have to “play harder.” Actually, there was a word in between “play” and “harder” that I can’t use in this space. Shero added that the Devils need more “resolve” and “push-back” in their game.

• Shero said he warned the players on day one of training camp that this season would be harder than last season was and that the Devils absolutely needed to re-establish the hard working ethic last season’s team had. Shero again mentioned the departures of players like Bobby Farnham, Jordin Tootoo, Stephen Gionta and Tuomo Ruutu, all blue-collar players who contributed greatly to the team’s makeup.

• Shero compared taking over the Devils as general manager with his previous stops, where he worked with the expansion Senators or the Predators in their early days. In other words, Shero feels he needed to completely rebuild the organization’s foundation. But Shero said that when the Devils do reach the postseason again — the last time was the six-game loss to the Kings in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final — it will be special for that group because of how the organization was rebuilt.

As for Wednesday's practice, it wasn’t about lines, defense pairings, etc. It was about winning battles and playing with speed and getting to the tight quarters around the crease. In black ink, a rectangle was painted on both sides of the ice from the two faceoff dots down to the backboards; the goal was to play within that area and keep the puck there.

Neither Jacob Josefson (upper body) nor Vern Fiddler (lower body), who blocked Roman Josi’s third-period shot in Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to the Predators — Fiddler came back out for one more shift — practiced today, and Hynes said both are day to day.

As a result, Hynes said no lineup decisions, not even a goalie decision, has been made for Thursday against the Flyers (Andy Greene Bobblehead Night).

The most interesting comment Hynes made was when he was asked about Greene’s comment that there was too much east-west play and the Devils needed to do a better job getting the puck behind the opposing defensemen and making them turn and chase it into their own zone.

“It’s real simple,” Hynes said. “If you play a team that played the night before and they have a good gap in the neutral zone, the best thing to do is put the puck behind them with speed and make them turn and play in the offensive zone.”

The Predators won a 2-1 shootout in Philadelphia on Monday night.

“They’ve played 65 minutes in a shootout the night before,” Hynes said. “Earlier in the game, we decided to try and make plays at the offensive blue line and turn the puck over and give them momentum. It’s real simple. It’s not forcing plays. It’s choices you need to make to be able to win games in this league, and it’s understanding when you have time and space to make plays. And when there’s a bad gap, you want to enter with possession. And when there’s a tight gap and numbers, the play is behind them.”

Lastly, and this was not part of the discussion with Shero but my reporting today — still no news on Patrik Elias or when the team's all-time leading scorer might make a decision on whether he believes he can play this season. He's still going through his rehab protocol to test his surgically repaired knee, and no timetable has been established on Elias's part as to when, or if, he might decide he can or cannot play.

OK, so now on to the transcribing.

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