4. What MUST happen for the Devils to keep this series competitive and possibly win?
Villano: Outside of Markstrom playing well, the Devils need depth scoring. Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt will face Jordan Staal more often than not, especially in Raleigh. Players like Dawson Mercer, Cody Glass, and Erik Haula have to step up on the scoresheet.
Parise: The Devils, more than any team that made it to the postseason this year, need their best players to be their best players. If they all pop off, they can keep the series close.
Bailey: Hischier, Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, and even Dawson Mercer must score goals. Hischier is the only Devil with more goals than Jack Hughes this season, and the Hurricanes have major question marks in goal. They must shoot the puck, have an aggressive mindset, and test Pyotr Kochetkov and Freddie Andersen as much as possible.
Borges: It is very simple for the Devils to win this series: keep the puck out of the net. The Devils before Christmas break were one of the best teams in the league. For the last 4 months they have been one of the worst. Get back to that, you can make it competitive.
DeLuca: The Devils must find a way to get the first goal in these games. A lead is everything in the playoffs, find that first goal and build on it.
Matthews: They have to be physical and their goaltending needs to be lights out.
Streeter: The New Jersey Devils best hope is for the power play to continue to do well and for the return of Dougie Hamilton to re-generate offense on the back end of the ice. These two aspects of the game MUST be critical for New Jersey to not only stay in the series — but to win it.
Rubin: Goaltending has to be elite. The Devils can be competitive if Jacob Markstrom shows up and does what he is capable of.
Annaluru: They need to be able to capitalize on the few chances they do create. Shooting must be on point.
Miller: The Devils are going to have to stifle Carolina’s zone entries and be aggressive defensively. Allowing the Hurricanes to set up and get the cycle going is going to end badly for the Devils every time.
Stanislau: The New Jersey Devils have to play a very strong forecheck from the start of puck drop and not only be smart with a puck, but also not hold onto it for too long. In the playoffs, they may be playing with 200 feet of ice but it feels like mentally and physically. They also need to blue line trap in the neutral zone because when Carolina transitions from the offensive zone in their end to your defensive zone, you gotta stagger them up and it slows them down.
Garrison: The Devils need to keep up the speed of the Hurricanes if they want to be anywhere near competitive in this series. The team also needs to work on discipline and not take a lot of penalties per game, as it would hurt them in the long run, just like it did the last time against the Hurricanes in the playoffs.