The Devils hit the ice at noon on Wednesday for their first practice since Lindy Ruff was relieved of his head coaching duties.

NEWARK, N.J. -- The New Jersey Devils held a Wednesday afternoon practice at RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House. Goaltenders Nico Daws and Akira Schmid were the first two players on the ice.

Before things officially got underway, Curtis Lazar shot on his goaltenders, as he does most practice days. After he shot a puck past Schmid, a smiling Daws embraced him.

As an observer, it set an upbeat tone despite the negativity surrounding the team over the past couple of days.

"We have fun with it," Lazar said with a smile after practice. "Why not take a step back and have some fun? (Practice) is where you can laugh at your mistakes as long as you're working hard and you're learning from them."

Forward Lines & Defensive Pairs:

Timo Meier - Nico Hischier - Tyler Toffoli

Jack Hughes - Erik Haula - Jesper Bratt

Chris Tierney - Curtis Lazar - Dawson Mercer

Kurtis MacDermid - Tomas Nosek - Alexander Holtz

Jonas Siegenthaler - John Marino

Kevin Bahl - Brendan Smith

Luke Hughes - Colin Miller

Nico Daws/Akira Schmid

Extras: Nick DeSimone & Simon Nemec

The Devils started practice with a five-on-five drill. Minutes after the official start, Green called all the guys together.

"Believe it or not, when I brought them in, I told them, 'You're not going to hear me say this very often, but you guys skated too hard on that drill. It was supposed to be a warm-up drill'." 

Green said the team had a good morning review of their Tuesday night game against the Florida Panthers. The areas that needed improving were the focus of Wednesday's practice.

"One thing that we wanted to work on today was passing," Green said."Passing on the tape, execution, and making sure our pace was high."

"We wanted to focus on our pace and execution," Lazar said. "Those are the two words that we kind of want to dial in on."

Both Lazar and Green were satisfied with the team's roughly 40-minute practice in Newark. The Devils host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, March 7, at Prudential Center.

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