The slogan that lines the dressing room wall of Sheldon Keefe’s New Jersey Devils team reads: Compete. Commit. Connect.

So far, so good. Keefe has the Devils right near the top of the league in the early going this season, on pace for a 23-point improvement on last season.

In some ways, life is completely different here for the former Leafs coach. The microscope, for one thing, is nothing like the one he left in Toronto. (Most of the handful of media covering Monday’s practice work for the Devils.) In other ways, it’s quite similar.

Keefe got into some of the details of his new life with the Devils, as well as the one he left behind with the Leafs, during a half-hour sit-down with The Athletic on Monday. “I look back to my time in Toronto as hard to compute, quite honestly,” he said.

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