FARMERS BRANCH, Texas -- The Devils made no changes to their forward lines and defense pairings at Wednesday's practice.
Coach John Hynes did say goalie Cory Schneider will go back in net on Thursday when they play the Dallas Stars at 8:30 p.m. at American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
While the other combinations remained the same from Tuesday's 3-2 shootout loss to the St. Louis Blues at the Scottrade Center, Hynes didn't rule out the possibility of changes on Thursday.
Here's how the Devils looked at Wednesday's practice:
FORWARDS
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Jesper Bratt
Marcus Johansson - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Stefan Noesen
Blake Coleman - Brian Boyle - Brian Gibbons
Jimmy Hayes, Drew Stafford extra
DEFENSMEN
John Moore - Sami Vatanen
Andy Greene - Steven Santini
Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Damon Severson extra
GOALIES
Cory Schneider
Keith Kinkaid
The Devils went through about 30 minutes of formal practice, with some line rushes and dump-and-chase drills to get the forwards on the forecheck.
The afternnon ended with a shootout competition, which was followed by a pair of foot races as a tie breaker. Forward Miles Wood beat defenseman John Moore from one goal line to the opposite blue line, then forwards Blake Coleman and Kyle Palmieri came down to a photo finish.
Foot race between Kyle Palmieri (red) and Blake Coleman (white). Who won? pic.twitter.com/LPOjWobkR1
-- Chris Ryan (@ChrisRyan_NJ) January 3, 2018
Hynes gave Coleman the win.
"They're all very competitive people, so sometimes when you can just add different things where they have the chance to compete and even with the shootout, where there's a little bit of a consequence at the end, it's kind of similar what happens in a game," Hynes said. "It's a little more nerve wracking when they get picked to shoot and they're on a team. Just trying to infuse some competitive stuff every day for us, and it also livens it up."
After the Devils play the Stars on Thursday, they will head to Brooklyn for a game against the New York Islanders on Sunday prior to their five-day bye week.
With the Devils currently riding a three-game losing streak -- two coming in overtime or shootout -- they want to enter the break on a high note.
"Coming in, we talked about having three games," Hynes said. "After the Washington game, little bit of a day off and then a reset, really building our game and making sure that we're focused on Dallas (on Thursday) and then we'll move on to the Islanders and a big divisional game.
"I think with our leadership group and where we're at in the schedule, the standings, there's a pretty strong focus level."
Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com Devils on Facebook.