Devils' Nico Hischier, Curtis Lazar, Brendan Smith, and Nico Daws give a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what life is like for an injured player.

Injuries are as much a part of hockey as glove saves and slap shots.

Sometimes a team will get lucky, like the Vancouver Canucks this season, where the injuries are minimal and are not a detriment to the team.

That has not been the case for the New Jersey Devils.

Only seven players on the club's roster have appeared in all 47 games this season; four forwards and three defensemen.

- Tyler Toffoli, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Alexander Holtz, John Marino, Kevin Bahl, and Luke Hughes.

For several months, it has been a rotating door of getting one injured player back but simultaneously losing another. At the time of publication, the Devils have six injured players: Nolan Foote, Dougie Hamilton, Jack Hughes, Tomas Nosek, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brendan Smith.

With injuries becoming the theme of the 2023-24 season, I caught up with Nico Hischier, Curtis Lazar, Brendan Smith, and Nico Daws to go behind the scenes of a player's life while sidelined with injury.

As you read further, the most important thing to remember is that each player began their answer by saying, "It depends on the injury."

Up first, the young captain who has dealt with his fair share of injuries throughout his seven-season career.

"You are still coming to the rink," he said. "Obviously, you're not traveling with the team. You do whatever you can do. You work out, do your rehab, (get treatments). It is step by step."

Hischier admitted that it is easy to get into a funk when recovering from an injury and shared that when he is sidelined, he FaceTimes with friends and watches TV, amongst other things he enjoys. When we spoke, he shared that he is currently into historical documentaries thanks to the popularity of the Roman Empire on TikTok.

The first-overall pick shared that it could be a lonely time, and Smith agreed.

"If you are a single guy and injured, it is hard. It is really tough. I think that's where it plays a little bit of tricks in your brain where you want to be back to help the team. You want to support your team because you've been doing that your whole life. If you don't have a family to fall back on, it can become very tough."

Smith has been dealing with a sprained knee sustained on Jan. 15. He is one of a handful of players in New Jersey who has a family as he and his wife, Sam, have two children, their son Nolan and daughter Ryenn.

"(When you're injured) you don't go on the road. You're then home to put your kids down, and out of all the emotions and heartbreak of being injured, that is the biggest benefit."

Regarding how often an injured player is at the rink, Smith said it sometimes could be more than usual.

"You're not really with the team, but you're still there, even more time trying to rehab yourself."

Now that we know players are at the rink, Lazar answers the following question: Are injured players attending team meetings?

"Last year, when I came (here) when I was hurt, I was trying to get in as many (meetings) as I could to get an understanding of what the team is doing," Lazar said.

He continued to say that Dougie Hamilton, who has been sidelined since Nov. 28, would not be in meetings at this time.

"Dougie has been here. He knows what to do, what to expect," Lazar said.

"You want to take care of yourself," he continued. "You don't want to overfill your mind."

Daws was another injured player who did not attend meetings until he was closer to a return.

"Once (training) camp rolled around, I was basically in here every day, which was nice being around all the guys," the netminder said. "Obviously, the timing was a little different, the injured guys were either in earlier or later (in the day), so there were enough bodies to handle everybody. I did not really start going into meetings until I was a little closer to returning."

When asked what he did in his downtime, the 23-year-old provided a relatable response.

"Boring days. A lot of TV shows," Daws said with a laugh. "I rewatched all of Friends and started watching the Marvel movies, which I had never seen before. I'm still kind of working through them now. That was a big part of my downtime."

Being injured is one of the worst things that could happen in sports. A player's recovery could look vastly different from their teammate, but as Hischier said, it is a step-by-step process.

The mental side of the recovery seems to vary from player to player depending on their situation, and as one of them said, "The mental grind of being injured is probably the hardest part."

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