New Jersey Devils: Should We Be Worried About Team's Experience?

The New Jersey Devils are preparing for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in six seasons. This young team has been carried by pure speed and irrational confidence. Now that we’ve gotten to the playoffs, should we be worried about this team’s lack of playoff experience?

The New Jersey Devils are taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This matchup puts the favorites in the Eastern Conference against the team with literally the worst odds to win it all. The Lightning are 6/1 in Las Vegas Sportsbooks, while the Devils are 30/1.

A lot of this has to do with the experience of one team against the other. Think about how many of these players have been in the Stanley Cup Finals within the past five years. The cornerstone players on the Lightning, like Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, etc. all played for the Cup three seasons ago. They ended up losing to the Chicago Blackhawks, but that experience shows they can make a run. On top of that, they added Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi who both played on the Rangers 2014 team that made a run to the Cup Finals. Also, Sidney Crosby’s favorite winger Chris Kunitz jumped to the Lightning after winning the Cup with the Penguins two seasons ago.

On the Devils, however, a large majority of these players never even made the playoffs in their career, let alone Finals experience. Their star player Taylor Hall has never been to the playoffs. If you forget this fact, ask an Edmonton Oilers fan and they will quickly remind you. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Will Butcher and Blake Coleman are all rookies, so obviously they never had a chance to make the playoffs.

There are players who got some experience with other teams. Brian Boyle will likely be the leader when it comes to playoff experience. This is his eighth straight season to make the playoffs. Boyle even went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 and 2015. He has 106 playoff games under his belt.

Kyle Palmieri and Sami Vatanen both have playoff experience with the Anaheim Ducks. They are both young, but have 33 and 40 games of experience between them.

Marcus Johansson made the playoffs every season of his career. He hasn’t been the biggest contributor for the Capitals, but he has different motivation this season. Coming back from missing a majority of the season with a nasty concussion will give him the push he needs to contribute.

Obviously, Travis Zajac and Andy Greene have been on the Devils long enough to see when the Devils were successful. Their the last two players on the Devils team that made it’s run to the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals.

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The big question with experience is in net. Keith Kinkaid is a starter for the first time in his career. Obviously, that means he has no postseason experience. Andrei Vasilevskiy has one season where he started six games, and played very well. He had a .925 save percentage in 2016. However, Ben Bishop was always there to take the majority of games. Vasilevskiy was technically still not the starter.

At the end of the day, the Devils lack of experience was supposed to hold them down all season. It never did. Sure, the postseason is a completely different atmosphere, but it shouldn’t affect this team too much.

There is one player to worry about, and it’s a small worry, but how will Hall react to his first playoff berth. He seems like a completely different player this year. However, pay attention to how he reacts to the playoff pressure.

Either way, the Devils are way ahead of schedule. As long as they are competitive this series, it’s more than most people expect. Experience may be a huge factor, but as we learned last year when the Predators played the Blackhawks, it isn’t the most important factor. The Devils can win this series despite their lack of experience.

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