The New Jersey Devils were on a hot streak to end their 2025-26 season... until they weren't. Down the stretch, once the games didn't matter, their performances dropped too far below the standard.
Over the last two weeks, the Devils lost 4-1 to the lowly New York Rangers, 5-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and, most recently, 4-0 to the Boston Bruins in the season finale.
What you have is three blowout losses to Metropolitan Division rivals and a shutout in an epic fail of a season finale. The Devils looked, sounded like, and played like a team that lost its leader when Tom Fitzgerald left the organization, for better or for worse.
We have to be careful to not outright dismiss some of the goodwill the Devils built back after the Olympic break, but the overall way the season ended just isn't acceptable.
Whether it was head coach Sheldon Keefe and his coaching staff that lost the locker room or players checking out early and being unwilling to compete to the final horn on the season, the Devils have to make further changes.
Some of that will come naturally and take it care of itself once the organization finds its replacement(s) for Fitzgerald, and some of it will come from said replacement(s) making evaluations and following through with action.
This is, for the third year in a row, the same song and dance with these Devils and this group. We can safely assume that captain Nico Hischier, along with partners in crime Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes, are parts of the long-term future. Luke Hughes, if for no reason other than his contract, is right there with them.
From the coaching staff down, nobody who finished the year healthy has a safe spot moving forward. What ultimately takes place is up to the Devils' new boss, but changes are coming one way or another.
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