3 Ways New Jersey Devils Can Win Stanley Cup Championship

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The New Jersey Devils begin the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday against the New York Rangers. It is obviously going to be a big test for this young New Jersey squad. It is the first time the franchise has made the playoffs since 2018, when Taylor Hall dragged them into the postseason. This time around, however, they believe that they are set up for sustained success.

Coming into the playoffs, there are a few reasons to think this might not be the year quite yet, but they have as good of a chance as anybody. Obviously, the Boston Bruins are heading into the playoffs after the greatest regular season ever, but the Devils competed for the second-best record until the end. They are an elite team that deserves the respect of the entire league.

The New Jersey Devils are getting ready for a very good NHL Postseason.

The reason that people may disrespect them this year is the way that they got here. They had 49 more points this season than they did last year. They literally went from having the second-overall pick to the third-best record in the league.

It is on them to go into the playoffs with the mindset that they are going to prove every person wrong about them. That can help them take a huge step forward.

In order for this team to win the Stanley Cup, as is the case for every team in the playoffs, they need everything to go right for them. These are the three biggest needs for them heading into the postseason if they want to win the Stanley Cup:

1. The top players need to be the top players

The New Jersey Devils, like everyone else, need their best players to be their best players. If they aren’t amazing, they aren’t going to win anything.

Jack Hughes led this team in scoring with 99 points. He needs to go out there and dominate that same way during the playoffs. He scored 43 goals, adding a scoring threat to his already supreme playmaking ability.

Nico Hischier was the second-leading scorer with 80 points. Reaching that 80-point plateau meant New Jersey had two 80-point players for the first time in over a decade. In addition to the great offense, Hischier can provide great play in all three zones.

Jesper Bratt, Dougie Hamilton, Dawson Mercer, and Timo Meier all lead the depth scoring on this team. They are the best players on the team outside of the top two centers and need to show up in the playoffs.

If the top players play as well as they did in 2022-23, the Devils can beat anybody en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

2. Win the goalie battle

Everyone knows how good Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers is. He won the Vezina Trophy with no issue last season and led the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, this is not the last season. He still had a really good year, but he wasn’t an MVP candidate or anything like that as he was last year.

Vitek Vanecek and Igor Shesterkin haven’t been all that different this season. Shesterkin is still the better goaltender, but it isn’t like Vanecek can’t compete with him in this series. New Jersey needs their guy to be better for the duration of the series if they want to win it.

If they get past the Rangers, they still need to continue winning the goalie battle against everyone else they play. They don’t need him to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (although that would be nice), but they do need him to be better than the guy on the other side of the ice no matter what.

If the Devils get solid goaltending from Vanecek throughout the playoffs, they can win the Stanley Cup with him.

3. Win the Special Teams battle

The New Jersey Devils need to be strong on the power play and their penalty kill if they want to succeed in the postseason. It is important to succeed in those two areas because you can’t allow power-play goals, and you need to score them yourself.

New Jersey’s power play was average during the regular season, hitting the back of the net 21.9 percent of the time. That was good for 13th in the league. It’s not back, but there is room for improvement.

As for their penalty kill, they were outstanding. They killed off 82.6 percent of all the penalties that they took, which was tied with the Calgary Flames for fourth in the league. Obviously, that is something that they want to continue through the postseason.

The Devils traded for Timo Meier during the season. He is obviously going to improve their chances of scoring with the man advantage. He already has four goals on the power play in just 21 games with the Devils.

Good things can happen on the top unit with Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Dougie Hamilton snapping the puck around. The second unit can also create with guys like Dawson Mercer, Ondrej Palat, and Damon Severson amongst others.

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As for the penalty kill, almost everyone can be a contributor by committee, including the goaltender. As mentioned before, they need to win this battle so they will have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

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