The longest rebuild in franchise history has finally come to an end. The New Jersey Devils have reached the 100-point mark in a season for the first time since 2012, which has helped them clinch their first playoff berth in five years.
The long, arduous, and painful rebuild of the last decade has ended to the great relief of all New Jersey Devils fans. Finally.
Sure, the Devils last officially made the playoffs in 2017/18 on the back of Taylor Hall’s Hart (NHL MVP) Trophy season but getting knocked out by the Tampa Bay Lighting in the First Round in 5 games wasn’t really the end to the rebuild as many Devils fans hoped.
Especially not when you see how the Devils still went another five years, outside the playoffs earned another four Top-10 picks, earned three more Top-4 picks, and even won the draft lottery the very next season (2019) and drafted Jack Hughes.
Clearly, 2017/18 wasn’t the return to late 1990’s-early 2010’s (the glory days for the New Jersey franchise) form Devils fans all hoped that season would yield…but this has been that year. Not only have the Devils secured a spot in the postseason, but they also have a real chance of finishing as their division’s winner for the first time in 13 years.
Of course, the Devils franchise is not a stranger to winning division titles as the team won 9 division titles from the old Atlantic Division between the years 1993-2012, while the club managed to finish within the Top-2 seedings of the division in 14/18 seasons listed. Oh, and they also reached the Eastern Conference Finals 6 times, they won 5 Prince of Wales Trophies (won Eastern Conference), reached 5 Stanley Cup Finals, and won 3 Stanley Cups (1996, 2000, 2003).
In fact, they only missed the playoffs thrice in that span and the other season was cancelled due to the NHL Lockout in 2004, which just shows how dominating the Devils core of Martin Brodeur (Hall of Famer), Scott Stevens (Hall of Famer), Scott Niedermayer (Hall of Famer), Patrick Elias (bonified Hall of Fame candidate), Ken Daneyko, John MacLean, and GM Lou Lamoriello (Hall of Famer) truly was.
But, as you know, the 2010’s (aside from the first three years) was the decade that served as the antithesis of everything the Devils accomplished in the two decades prior.
Thankfully, those miserable days for Devils fans are over as this current Devils team has a real shot of winning the Metropolitan Division title (which would be the first in franchise history) as they are currently only two points behind the Hurricanes (Canes: 102 PTS; Devils: 100 PTS), and the Devils are on a 5-3-2 run in their last 10 games.
Now, I’m not picking the Devils to win the division as the Canes not only have more points and are on a better run in their last 10 games (6-4), but they’ve also played two less games than New Jersey and face off against the likes of the Red Wings twice (7th in the Atlantic), Canadiens (8th in Atlantic), Senators twice (6th in the Atlantic), and the Sabres (5th in the Atlantic).
Nevertheless, what I’m most impressed (and I’m sure all Devils fans) with this Devils team is how dangerous offensively they’ve been.
As you saw with the player I mentioned during the Devils glory days, the vast majority (4/6) of the key/Hall of Fame contributors were on the defensive side of the puck.
The New Jersey Devils of the 1990’s and early 2000’s are easily one of the greatest defensive teams in NHL history as they revolutionized the game with their “trap” style defense that clogged up the neutral zone and their defensive zone, obviously forcing opponents to dump the puck in and score from there.
And, when you have defenders and goaltenders like Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko, and Scott Niedermayer, and Marty Brodeur trying to stop you from scoring, such a task becomes infinitely harder.
Anyway, defense was what won the Devils all of their success in the 1990’s and 2000’s, but the team has impressively completely shifted to an extremely effective fast-paced, high-scoring offensive strategy under HC Lindy Ruff this season.
Jack Hughes (40 G, 46 A, 86 PTS) has the chance of being the first Devils player to reach 100 points, Nico Hischier (30 G, 40 A, 70 PTS) is on pace to be a point-per-game Selke candidate, Douggie Hamilton (19 G, 49 A, 68 PTS) has already smashed all team single-season defensive scoring records, the Devils have the 4th best GF/GM (3.50 GF/GM) and total goals scored (254), and there are potentially six players (Hughes, Hischier, Hamilton, Timo Meier, Dawson Mercer, and Jesper Bratt) who all could reach 60+ points on the season.
That’s insane for a New Jersy Devils team!
Obviously, for a team that has achieved so much this year, the real test will be in the playoffs when they either face off against hated-rivals New York Rangers (if they finish 2nd in Metro) or against the 7th seed (if they finish 1st in Metro). As long as the Devils put up at least a good fight in the First Round (win 2-3 games), then I think this season can be counted as a stunning success.
Good times are ahead for the Devils and their loyal, diehard fans.
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