The New Jersey Devils are finally coming home. After a four game road trip, including three games in Western Canada, the Devils return home for a six day homestand. They kick it off Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets at 7 p.m. on MSG.
New Jersey went 3-1-0 on their recent road trip, allowing just three total goals in the victory. They enter tonight sixth in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators for a tie of fourth place.
Head coach Peter DeBoer said that his team can't take their foot off the gas.
"We just need to keep winning," DeBoer told Rich Chere of The Star Ledger. "You see this league, you take your foot off the gas for a weekend, let along a six-game homestand, and you'll be at the bottom looking up pretty quickly. We're doing some good things, putting some points in the bank on a regular bases and we need to continue to do that."
New Jersey will play the second game of a home-and-home with Winnipeg tonight. The Devils have won two of three meetings this season, including a 2-1 win Saturday. Trailing 1-0 heading into the third period, Kurtis Foster and Patrik Elias scored 2:58 apart for the comeback win. That gave New Jersey two straight wins heading back to Prudential Center, where they're 11-7-1 this season.
Winnipeg blanked the Ottawa Senators, 2-0, yesterday in Ottawa. Jim Slater and Tobias Enstrom scored goals, and Chris Mason stopped 25 shots for his second shutout of the season. The win broke the Jets three-game losing streak and moved within three points of both the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Despite their success on the road, Brodeur knows his team needs to fight complacency.
"It's always tough when you come back from a big road trip," he told Chere. "Complacency usually sets in. We have to be aware of that."