5 Worst Playoff Experiences In New Jersey Devils History

The Toronto Maple Leafs are very close to blowing a 3-1 series lead in their first-round series with the Montreal Canadiens. The Maple Leafs have been unable to get out of the first round in four straight seasons. They haven’t won a playoff series since 2004. It’s been a pile of misery for Maple Leafs fans. While the New Jersey Devils have had more success in the playoffs over the past two decades, they can certainly understand the pain Leaf’s fans are feeling.

Just by virtue of probability, fans are going to finish more seasons upset than they are going to end them happy. There are certain seasons where fans are happy with the effort of the season, but the end result is only good for one team.

Still, there are just some seasons when a moment sticks with you. It might be a whole game that just breaks your heart. Either way, the feeling is swift and utterly painful. It seems like we talk about those moments more often than the moments of elation. There’s always the “where were you when” feeling when the team wins. However, that feeling you feel when the team loses in the most agonizing way possible never really goes away.

It can be hard to look back at those painful moments, but it is good for closure. Most of them happened decades ago anyway. Well, except one very specific one. As we watch to see what happens in Game 7 of the Leafs-Canadiens, we take a look back at some of those heart-wrenching moments that really made being a Devils fan painful.

5. The Team’s First Real Run

Back in 1988, the Devils were still wearing green on a regular basis, there were some very interesting stars to build around, and the team was looking to compete for the first time since the franchise moved from Colorado. Kirk Muller and Aaron Broten were the team’s top scorers in the high-powered 1980s. Pat Verbeek finally made a jump into that next level, scoring 77 points in 73 games. A 21-year-old Sean Burke ended up taking over in net in the playoffs for Bob Sauve. There was so much to like about this 1987-88 team as they looked to play spoiler in the playoffs.

They beat the Patrick Division-winning New York Islanders in the first round. Then, they took out the Washington Capitals in the second round. The Devils only made the playoffs over the Rangers thanks to percentage points, but they were making the most of it.

Then, they faced the Boston Bruins in one of the wildest series off the ice in NHL history. This was the legendary “have another donut” series, where Devils head coach Don Koharski yelled at a referee after Game 3 for how he called the game. The NHL tried to suspend Koharski, but the Devils skipped the typical appeals processes and went straight to the New Jersey State Supreme Court. They had to search the crowd for referees for Game 4.

This wild series went all the way to Game 7. The Devils were coming off a 6-3 victory to force a Game 7. However, things went off the rails in the 3rd period of Game 7.

Kirk Muller scored about three minutes into the period to make it 3-2 and officially giving the Devils a shot to tie this game. However, with less than ten minutes to go in the game, Craig Janney scored to make it 4-2. Hope was dwindling until Cam Neely put a knife into the heart of the Devils’ season. He scored to make it 5-2, which put an end to the Devils season. The hope was the Devils could build off of this, but they didn’t and missed the playoffs the next season. That one Cinderella run ended with a whimper thanks to Boston’s third period dominance.

4. Game 6 Was Right There

This one was hard to rank. The pain was prolonged and felt more like a lost opportunity than massive heartbreak. The Devils took a 3-2 lead on the Colorado Avalanche in the 2001 Stanley Cup Final with the series going back to New Jersey. Everything was well at hand. Then, Game 6 happened.

The Devils just didn’t show up in Game 6. They let the Avalanche score four goals and they couldn’t figure out Patrick Roy even once. It was just absolute torture. For those who stuck around for the entire game, you deserve praise. This was a brutal one, especially since it happened at home.

Adam Foote scored at the end of the first period, and that ended up being the game-winning goal. Everything the Avs threw at the net seemed to go in. It was one of the worst performances of Brodeur’s postseason career. He played the entire game, and he finished it with a .778 save percentage. The Devils only allowed 18 shots, but four of them went in the net.

Meanwhile, the Devils only got 24 shots. It really was a defensive game even if the final score doesn’t show that. The Devils were unable to break the veteran defensive unit that was Colorado. The Avs were motivated to send this back to the Pepsi Center, and the Devils played without a certain urgency we’d expect to see in the Final.

The Avs won this game, and then they really controlled Game 7 as well. Devils fans were crying while the rest of the hockey world was cheering for Ray Bourque.

3. The Guarantee/Matteau, Matteau, Matteau

This one really hurt for a myriad of reasons. For one, this was the best Devils team the franchise had ever seen. Martin Brodeur was putting together the beginnings of a Hall of Fame career. Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer were one of the best defensive duos in the league (even if they didn’t always play alongside each other). Now, the Devils were heading into the Eastern Conference Finals against their biggest rivals and the team they had to pay just to move to New Jersey.

The New York Rangers were huge favorites coming into the series. They had the stars, the experience, the Cup history, and they were the team from the biggest city in the world. John MacLean was the Devils’ biggest offensive star, and he wasn’t exactly a perennial All-Star. This was a ragtag group that could find scoring on all four lines. In this series against the Rangers, no one scored more than five points. Claude Lemieux and Bernie Nicholls led the team in points. Valeri Zelepukin led the team in goals.

So, when the Devils took a 3-2 lead in the series, Devils fans were riding high. They finally had a chance to one-up their cross-river rivals on their way to the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, the second-most famous guarantee in New York sports history led to one of the best performances of Mark Messier’s career. Messier told reporters before Game 6 that “we are going to win and force a Game 7”. Messier went on to score a hat trick in Game 6 and pretty much single-handedly forced Game 7.

The Devils still had a chance to turn it around and go to the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, the name Stephane Matteau would live on in the nightmares of Devils fans forever. The Devils tied the game when Zelepukin scored with eight seconds left in the 3rd period. It was the team’s first goal of the game, and it was epic. The Devils went up against a dejected Rangers team in overtime. Mike Richter and Brodeur went head to head, stopping everything. Then, Matteau takes a puck in the corner and beats Niedermayer. He takes a bad-angle shot that beats Brodeur. It was another devastating Game 7 for the Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals.

2. Rob Scuderi Penalty

This was more a moment than it was a game. The New Jersey Devils went down to the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 in the 2012 Stanley Cup Final. It looked like the special run that included beating both the team’s biggest rivals was going to end in a whimper. The Kings were just a force. The Devils did force overtime in Games 1 and 2, but they lost both at home.

However, like sports tend to do, hope came out of nowhere. The Devils stole a game in Los Angeles to bring it back to New Jersey. Then, they won their first Stanley Cup Final game at the Prudential Center. Now, the series was 3-2 and national analysts were talking about if the Devils could be the first team to erase a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 6 was chippy to start. Anton Volchenkov took a hooking penalty just three minutes into the game. That wasn’t the penalty that caused irrevocable pain for the Devils and its fanbase. It was the five-minute major assessed to Steve Bernier after his hit on Rob Scuderi. The issue wasn’t the hit. Obviously, it was a little too hard. However, to A. miss the hit two seconds ago on Stephen Gionta (he was hit headfirst into the boards in front of the bench), B. not calling icing on the play, and C. make this a major penalty. Scuderi stayed down, but he returned nefariously quickly.

The Kings scored three goals on the major penalty, and that basically ended the Stanley Cup Final. The Kings would win in the Staples Center like it was meant to be. Meanwhile, the Devils went home after the last run of Martin Brodeur’s career. This team was never the same, Zach Parise left for Minnesota, Ilya Kovalchuk retired a year later, the NHL went into a lockout right after all this, and the fanbase has been searching for the happy feeling that came from this run ever since.