With the disappointing 2023-24 NHL season firmly in the rearview, the New Jersey Devils have 25 games left to prove themselves as a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference. Through the first 38 games, the team looked leaps and bounds ahead of last year's squad with an impressive 24-11-3 record.
Since then, more flaws have been exposed as the team has struggled to remain consistent. If this team wants to be better than one-and-done in the postseason, they need some things to go their way down the stretch. Here are three things the Devils need to improve in order to solidify a playoff spot.
1. Stringing Together Wins
The Devils have proven to be a streaky team at times, for better and for worse. The squad has not had a winning streak of more than three games this season. That's not to overlook the stretches of solid performances across the board, including a 6-1-0 run from Dec. 12 through Dec. 27. In that time, New Jersey outscored the opponents 25 to 9 with a 30.8% success rate on the power play.
On the flip side, the Devils have recorded four-game losing streaks on three different occasions, and two of those have come in the 19 games since Dec. 27. Overall, the Devils are 7-9-3 during that time frame, allowing 30.2 shots against per game.
It hasn't been all bad, though. New Jersey is killing 86.8% of penalties since the Christmas break and has also managed two shutouts from the backup netminders. But that draws even more attention to the -2 goal differential in those 19 games -- which includes a 5-0 win against the Flyers and a 4-0 victory against the Canadiens.
Being able to win multiple games in a row is more important now than ever, both for seeding purposes and looking ahead to the postseason. Alternating wins and losses may not be good enough to have a deep run when it matters most.