After Tuesday night’s embarrassing 7-2 loss to the Boston Bruins, the New Jersey Devils again had to rely on their rivals to help them clinch a playoff spot. The Philadelphia Flyers played the New York Rangers that night, and the Devils could’ve clinched in many ways.
The game could’ve ended in regulation, and if the Flyers won it in overtime or either team won in a shootout, the Devils would’ve clinched. Thankfully for the Devils, the only other way they clinched was simple: if the Flyers beat the Rangers in regulation, and lucky for them, it got done that way.
The game went back and forth as Aleksei Kolosov and Jonathan Quick struggled to maintain momentum for their teams. Thankfully for the Flyers and Devils, Tyson Foerster scored a hat trick, and with empty-net goals from Owen Tippett, the Flyers won the game. The Devils officially clinched a berth in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs and are going to prepare to take on the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 1.
Through a season filled with many ups and downs, including losing Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Jonas Siegenthaler for the rest of the season and having so much inconsistency in the second half of the season, the Devils have made the playoffs for the first time in three years under new head coach Sheldon Keefe, who has made the playoffs every year in the NHL.
While it may be time to celebrate now, the Devils need all the practice they can get. With the season's last four games coming, the Devils should still try to take as seriously as possible if they want to be aggressive and get back to their play style that helped them get where they needed to be this season if they want to win this series against the Hurricanes since they will be the underdogs in this series.
The last time the Devils faced the Hurricanes in the playoffs was the 2nd round of the 2023 NHL Playoffs, where the Devils got outmatched in the first two games as the Canes scored five goals in Game 1 and six in Game 2. While they would go on to win Game 3 at home by a score of 8-4, Game 4 was more of the same as the Hurricanes would once again win 6-1.
In Game 5 of the series, Jonas Siegenthaler took a brutal delay of game penalty, which set up Jesper Fast’s power-play goal to end the series and eliminate the Devils. This series will be the 3rd time in almost 20 years the Devils will play the Hurricanes in the playoffs, which the Hurricanes have won the last two times, including that Game 7 heartbreaker in the 2009 Playoffs, while the Devils will be looking for their first playoff series win against the Hurricanes since the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs.