NHL

MADDEN CONFIDENT SUTTER WILL STAY PUT

For the first time in a long time, the Devils have three scoring lines. So they don’t read between the lines when the coach who has led them to eight consecutive victories won’t confirm whether he wants to return next season.

“I think the team is very focused,” said John Madden. “We have had a lot of coaching changes and dealt with a lot of stuff like that.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this. I’m sure [Brent Sutter] is coming back.”

Sutter wouldn’t say that though yesterday, the first time the Devils practiced since The Post reported Saturday his “no response” to questions about his commitment for next season, believed to be the last on his contract.

“To be honest, I don’t know where it came from,” Sutter said. But this newspaper does and considers the source, one close to Sutter, to be credible.

Then again, so was the coach when he added:

“I said this before and will say it again: I evaluate myself after every year, both as a coach and my personal situation. I have done that since 1999, I did it last year, will do it every year as long as I coach.

“That’s why I didn’t respond to it, because there is nothing to respond to. I don’t want to talk about it because there is nothing to talk about.”

Indeed, Brendan Shanahan said that not one player had mentioned Sutter’s status. “We’re professional athletes trying to control what we can control, blocking out noise and distractions,” said the winger.

The Devils have incumbent players from teams that had coaches axed by Lou Lamoriello on March 23 and April 2 (and one of those times won the Stanley Cup). They know for certain they will be coached tomorrow night by Sutter and well, whether he yearns for Red Deer, Alberta, or not.

“Brent has done a great job having them in a focused direction, not letting anything get in the way,” said Lamoriello, after saying he had “no comment on what was said or not said; don’t want to get into thoughts or discussions” about Sutter’s commitment for next season, believed to be the final one on his three-year contract.

Whatever the Devils pay Sutter, he earns. The team, a 99-point first-round loser to the Rangers last spring, has been without the injured Marty Brodeur, perhaps the best goalie ever, for 40 games and missed Brian Rolston, the top off-season acquisition for 18 contests, and nevertheless surged to the Atlantic Division lead.

The addition of Rolston and, recently, Shanahan have added scoring depth, but much of the transformation has come internally from the rejuvenation of Patrik Elias and the blossoming of Zach Parise and Travis Zajac. If these are not your father’s Devils, trying to win 2-1, credit Sutter.

“He never had a problem from day one with us trying to make hockey plays,” said Madden. “Don’t turn pucks over in dangerous areas, don’t take high-risk chances, don’t be a perimeter player, go to the net yourself, and you can still do what you want on offense.”

And trust has been built.

“I’m proud of the way they’ve responded, not just the fact that we have had success but everything that has allowed us to have success,” said Sutter. “There has been a process of more than a year we are being rewarded for.”

Will he be able to walk away from that?

jay.greenberg@nypost.com