The New Jersey Devils who had gone a decade without winning a playoff series, last Monday beat the New York Rangers using speed and a phenomenal rookie goal. Now they are about to tame a hurricane.
Jack Hughes thought he had accomplished all he can as a professional ice hockey player. He was the No. 1 draft pick in 2019, living his best life over the following four seasons, playing for the Devils and becoming a legend in the NHL.
Then Hughes got to the postseason.
“I used to think the regular season in the NHL was a blast,’’ he said, all smiles. “It doesn’t even come close to the playoffs.’’
Jack and the other Devils were flying Monday night in Newark, N.J., after winning 4-0 over the Rangers in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series. They beat off their larger and more skilled neighbours and passed a strong message that may have been delivered a year or two before now.
The last time New Jersey Devils won a playoff series was in 2010, winning just 27 games last season as they rebuilt under Tom Fitzgerald, their general manager since 2020. They included top-end draft picks, like Hughes and Nico Hischier, the first overall pick in 2017, made some hopeful trades and brought in top free agents.
Fitzgerald built a team that is lightning-fast and experienced, and these signs hint at improvement this year. Now they hope to they hope a steady climb across the next several seasons will follow.
When the ages of these young players, the blooming talent and cohesion, and the evidence on the ice in the series are considered, it is not unreasonable to expect the NHL and Ranger fans to have the New Jersey Devils to be content with well beyond 2023.
This is the time of the year we want to be playing in for the next 10 years, “Hughes said, he also stated that Devils fans now have regional bragging rights, until next spring.
Monday’s Game 7 concluded a wild first round of the NHL playoffs, where road teams won a record 31 of the 50 games. Fourteen games moved to overtime, with the road team winning 11 of those matches. The best regular-season team in history, the Boston Bruins, lost to the Florida Panthers, the second and final wild card in the East. Colorado Avalanche the defending champions bowed to the Seattle Kraken, a second-year expansion team playing in its first postseason.
The Toronto Maple Leafs secured a win in a first-round playoff series for the first time since 2004, winning the Tamp Bay Lightning in Game 6 in Tampa, Fla., to become one of six teams to win the series on the road.
Out of the remaining eight teams, the Carolina Hurricanes are the Stanley Cup’s most recent champions, all the way back to 2006. They won the New York Islanders on Long Island in overtime of Game 6 and now host the Devils for Game 1 on Wednesday.
New Jersey will most likely stick with Akira Schmid, the sensational rookie goalie who reversed the series against the Rangers. Following their loss in the first two home games, Coach Lindy Ruff sat Vitek Vanecek for Game 3 and gave Schmid the net. The Devils won four of the next five games.
Schmid posted two shutouts and 1.38 goals against average in the series and emerged as the fifth rookie to get a shutout in a Game 7, the first since Montreal Canadiens Carey Price in 2008.
“The biggest thing was that Schmido, obviously, came in and played unreal,” Hughes said about the team’s turnaround. “He was a brick wall for us.’’
Akira may be another piece in New Jersey’s promising future. He turns 23rd on May 12, and began only 14 regular-season games, leaving the bench in four other matches for the Devils, who signed Vanecek to a three-year contract last summer. Vanecek was great during the regular season, but desperation spurred a move.
Schmid is from Bern, Switzerland, 6-foot-5, 205 pounds and nicknamed Schimdo the Torpedo by his teammates. He played 23 games in the minors for the American Hockey League’s Utica Comets this season, and his goals-against average was higher there (2.62) than it was in his regular-season games with New Jersey (2.13). This may not be a surprise. That statistic reflects the team’s play in general, and Akira explained that playing in the NHL can be less chaotic for a goalie. The structure in front of the goal is better, and defenders are more skilled at clearing rebounds and curbing tip-ins.
“It almost makes it easier to read the play sometimes,” Schmid said.
While New Jersey is noticeably fast, they also showed desire and tenacity, particularly in Game 7. Ondrej Palat’s relentless forechecking and unremitting desire directly led to the first goal on Monday. Palat, who won two Stanley Cups while with Tampa Bay, was signed in July to bring playoff experience and showed his team what it took to win in the playoffs.
“This team has no quit,” Ruff said. “They give me everything they have.”
Erik Haula is another veteran hockey player purchased last off-season, through a trade with the Bruins, to augment the team’s playoff savvy. He appeared in 41 games for Carolina in 2019-20 and faced off against them in the playoffs last year as a member of the Bruins, who lost in seven games.
On Monday, Haula scored a third goal for his team, another example of the Devils’ perfect blend of hard work with finesse, determination, and skill. Palat won a puck battle on the boards and kicked the puck up to Hughes, who facilitated a pass for Haula to send home.
The New Jersey Devils will need to bring this energy for the Hurricanes, who got the home-ice advantage in the series by winning the Metropolitan Division by one point over the Devils.
But when they go home to Newark for Games 3 and 4, Haula predicted the atmosphere to be far better than it was in the first round.
“It’s only going to get louder when we get those Rangers fans out of here,” he said.
