The season is over for the New Jersey Devils. The Carolina Hurricanes knocked them out with a double overtime win in Game 5 of the first round. While the Hurricanes prepare for their second-round matchup with the Washington Capitals, the Devils are preparing for the offseason.
The Devils must learn from their five games with the Hurricanes. If they are going to eventually be successful in the postseason, they can't rest on their laurels or expect wins to just come to them. They need to continue adjusting until the right formula comes into their lap. For that reason, the lessons learned at the end of April 2025 could eventually lead to a Stanley Cup win.
Lesson #1
Power play is where the Devils should build for the postseason
It's clear that Tom Fitzgerald did his best to build a team that was hard to play against in the postseason. When they were buzzing, their forecheck was doing amazing things and causing chaos. It led to a few goals in the series, as the Devils actually had more 5v5 goals than the Hurricanes this series. Most would be surprised to hear that who weren't paying enough attention to the Devils-Hurricanes matchup, but it was fairly even at even strength.
The power play is where the Devils failed. Of course, the penalty kill also struggled, but it's much easier to blame injuries for that failure. Johnathan Kovacevic going down really changed that unit, as was the loss of Brenden Dillon. Heck, even Jack and Luke Hughes played important roles at different points in the season.
However, the power play failed them that series. They were the only team to fail on the power play for an entire series this year. It's because they built their entire power play for most of the season around Jack Hughes.
While things were still good without Hughes after he got shoulder surgery in early March, it was clear that the goals were coming from smoke and mirrors. They did get some great one timers from Timo Meier, but the Hurricanes system was built to stop it. They didn't let pucks get in deep, which was pivotal for the Devils game plan. Having Stefan Noesen handle the puck is not the recipe for a good power play. The Devils need two impressive units that can keep the puck moving and throwing a PK off balance until their shot opens up.
Lesson #2
Find proper secondary scoring
Okay, this is a lesson from the entire season, but it reared its ugly head during this series. Only six players scored a goal in this series. One was Simon Nemec, who scored the game winner in double overtime in Game 3 to give the Devils their only win. Hischier showed up, scoring four goals in the series. Bratt scored his first playoff goal on a goalie in his career. Timo Meier was playing well. And... that's it.
The chart above showed that Hischier, Bratt, and Meier played well in the series. Dawson Mercer and Ondrej Palat were fine contributors. Nathan Bastian was a decent fourth-line forward, but everyone else did not step up in any way. Paul Cotter and Noesen are returning, but Sheldon Keefe needs to find better opportunities for them to contribute. Cody Glass might have cost himself a contract. Erik Haula can't be on the roster next season.
The Devils need extreme upgrades on the roster depth. Some would call for six new forwards on the bottom six, but truly, with Arseni Gritsyuk coming, and adding a top-six forward, the Devils can make it work with a few strategic risks.
Lesson #3
Find a way to stop the bleeding
The Devils were not a good team when it came to being mentally tough in hard times. This isn't supposed to be the knock on them that it sounds like, but the fact that they blew a 3-0 lead in the deciding Game 5 shows what we're talking about.
The Hurricanes scored a goal early in the second period on the power play to make it 3-1. It just felt like things would go south from there. It wasn't five minutes later and the game was tied. That happened too often this season. The Devils blew a 2-0 lead against the Canes in Game 3. They won, but only because if Nemec's heroics.
Sheldon Keefe must find the right cords to play in unfortunate moments. He usually gets them going in intermission, but they have to do it in the moment. Luckily the Devils only need cooperation from one person to change this. It's on Keefe to adjust what he's doing.