NEWARK, N.J.—Lou Lamoriello's office is a testament to his tunnel vision. Nothing hangs from the walls there—no photographs, no posters, no portraits, no memories.

He has decorated the room so sparingly on purpose, he said, all the better to accent the seven statues that stand on a shelf high above his desk: four small replicas of the Prince of Wales Trophy, given to the winner of the NHL's Eastern Conference, and three of the Stanley Cup.

Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello said he never gives up on a season, not even one that starts as poorly as this one. Getty Images

"It's a single focus," he said.

Those trophies represent the best of Mr. Lamoriello's tenure as the New Jersey Devils' general manager, of his rise to become the brains and beating heart of what was once the NHL's model franchise.

But that history had to feel so far gone earlier this season. When the Devils were 9-22-3 and buried at the bottom of the league's standings, their slide marked a rare crack in the foundation that Mr. Lamoriello had begun laying in 1987, when he joined the organization.

For most franchises, such poor play would spark talk of a rebuilding process, of making major changes to keep up with a league's or sport's evolution. Mr. Lamoriello did the opposite: He intensified his reliance on those principles and philosophies that had worked for him in the past.

He was unwilling to sacrifice the season to a terrible start. He rehired a head coach who had worked for him twice before, and he has made no major trades. The Devils, in turn, have won nine of their last 12 games and given themselves a shot at the playoffs (albeit a remote one).

"It's as simplistic as you can possibly make it," he said in a recent interview. "When people say this is what their plan is or they're in a four-year rebuilding, I cringe when I hear that. There's no such thing. You've got to be the best you can be today, and then make adjustments in how to get better."

At 19-30-4, they have just 42 points, tying them for next-to-last in the Eastern Conference and 16 points behind the Carolina Hurricanes and Atlanta Thrashers, each of whom are tied for the conference's eighth and final postseason berth. What might be more important to Mr. Lamoriello, though, is that whether they make the playoffs or not, the Devils are playing like the Devils are supposed to.

Come the annual trade deadline, for instance, he likes to acquire players who have played for the Devils before. They are familiar with the system, with the environment. Their adjustment period is shorter, easier.

This is why he was so quick to bring back Jacques Lemaire to coach the team this season after he had fired John MacLean.

Mr. MacLean had played and coached for the Devils for more than 22 years. He was familiar with the system. The hire should have been a success. Why it wasn't, Mr. Lamoriello either cannot or will not explain in detail. Was it the torn meniscus in the right knee of Zach Parise, the Devils' best player—one of eight early-season injuries that rocked the team? Was it Ilya Kovalchuk's scoring slump? Goaltender Martin Brodeur's shaky play?

"The injuries became an excuse—not for me, but maybe for different people," Mr. Lamoriello said. "Things snowball. We just didn't handle it right. We didn't handle it as a team, in my opinion. We didn't just get together and get out of it. The best players that we have, have to take that responsibility, and it starts with me. So I don't shun that.

"What the difference is now is that our best players are playing the way they should play."

Write to Mike Sielski at