NHL: Buffalo Sabres at New Jersey Devils

Goalie Cory Schneider is congratulated by teammates after the Devils won their second in a row Tuesday night. (Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports)

NEWARK — The Devils believe they have made some positive strides since the team changed coaches on Dec. 26 and the team of Lou Lamoriello, Scott Stevens and Adam Oates took over.

Posting two straight wins for the first time since Nov. 11-14 was reason for optimism, even though the victories came against the Philadelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres. Neither team is in a playoff spot.

“For sure,” goalie Cory Schneider said. “We’re playing teams right now that are sort of lumped together with us in the standings. It’s good to pass them in the standings. I think we feel these are teams we can and should be beating.

“No disrespect to them. Buffalo came hard and so did Philly, but these are games we need to win. These are teams we know we can beat. We’ve taken care of business the last two games at home. That’s what good teams do. They hold court against teams around them in the standings.”

Since the coaching change, the Devils are 3-3-0. They’ve played well even in some of the losses.

“I think we’re playing better. I like the way we’re playing,” Mike Cammalleri said. “I think we have to be objective about our game, also, looking forward and realize we’ve got a long way to go. We can’t get ahead of ourselves.

“We’re working on some things and we’re trying to keep improving our game. It’s nice to get some wins because the biggest way to reinforce what we’re doing and build belief is with results.”

Lamoriello has tried to keep the lid on overoptimism, but he was excited about one aspect to the Devils’ improvement.

"Just scoring nine goals in two games is nice," Lamoriello said, pointing to the fact that the Scott Gomez-Jaromir Jagr line excelled against the Flyers and the Patrik Elias-Travis Zajac line produced against the Sabres.

“It was good to see the lines that have to be good score on consecutive nights.”

New Jersey Devils vs. Buffalo Sabres 1/6/15 26 Gallery: New Jersey Devils vs. Buffalo Sabres 1/6/15

Rich Chere may be reached at rchere@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ledger_NJDevils. Find NJ.com on Facebook.