During the course of the Devil's dominant Game 7 win over the Rangers, a game I started watching on a United plane that luckily had the old DirecTV screens, continued watching on my cell phone in my Uber from O'Hare into Chicago, and finished watching in a bar grabbing a late bite, ESPN flashed up a graphic that shocked me. It was that the only team that hasn't won a playoff series in as long as the Devils had was Buffalo, the team that inherited the mantle from the Mariners and Kings to be the new "team that hasn't made the playoffs in the longest time." It was 2012 the last time the Devils won a playoff series, ironically against the Rangers. 2012 is a long time ago - eleven to be exact.
What shocked me wasn't so much that only the Sabres hadn't won for longer, but that 11 years is more than the Astros went between not winning a playoff series (2005 to 2015 - I'm counting the AL Wild Card Game). Yes, the Astros never made the playoffs in that time frame, and the Devils did once, a random blip in 2018 where Taylor Hall went insane for two months, won an MVP, got the Devils to the playoffs where they were instantly beaten in 5 games, adn skipped town.
The Devils never seemed like the Astros team to me. The Astros tore it down worse than anyone in baseball ever, and while the Devils certainly had awful years they were never as embarrasingly bad. They got good fortune in getting the #1 pick in 2017 (Nico Heischier) and 2019 (Jack Hughes) moving up in the lottery each time. But they were just relentlessly, boringly bad. The Astros sucked the will to live out of me, the Devils were too boring to even do that.
2012 is recent enough that I had this blog then, I wrote about the Devils magical run to the Stanley Cup Final that year, a playoffs where they beat Philadelphia (revenge for 2004 and 2010) and the Rangers (even more meaningful revenge for 2008, and of course 1994). It was an incredible run full of Martin Brodeur turning back the clock, and great performances from Parise, and Kovalchuk and Elias and others. Of course, that was the last good Marty season (he was 41) and Parise left town and it was all bad immediately.
It's scary how quickly 11 years can pass, but also cool how quickly I can get wrapped back in. It helps that the entry point was the Rangers, but man did I come fully on board over this seven game series. Starting with the first two games, losing embarrasingly 5-1 at home in each. I was confidently saying that I didn't much care. This Devils team is young, loaded, and by all accounts a year early - losing to a Rangers team that is very good, and made some all-in moves, wasn't a shame. Yes, it would suck losing to the Rangers (not as much as someone who was around to remember 1994) but the future was bright. Over the course of that heart-wrenching 2-1 and 3-1 (2-1 with an empty net) wins in MSG, it all changed. I was fully on board. The future is bright.
But forget about the future. The Devils dominant 4-0 wins in Game 5 & Game 7 show that this team is truly great now. They played at a different speed than what is generally seen as a fast team. They dominated 5v5 - really for the whole series except for a last dash grasp by the Rangers in Game 6. They were insanely effective at the rush, and at limiting high-danger chances (a stat that was barely tracked, if at all, in 2012...). They rolled lines well enough, and got insane play from Jack Hughes and others. This was a team that deserved 112 points, deserved home ice, and deserved a 2nd round.
My comparison point was the 2015 Astros, who made it back to the playoffs after 10 years. They too were a year early, finally breaking out of tank-ville in 2014 with a 73-89 record, and then finishing the job. The future was bright (and that has turned out to be 100% true) but they silently had a great chance that year itself. After beating the Yankees (hey - beating a team from New York!) in the Wild Card game, they were up 2-1 on the Royals, up in Game 4, and then threw it away in a series of errors and mistakes. That Royals team then won the World Series. I don't know if the Astros beat the Blue Jays or the Mets, but they could ahve given a serious fight.
These Devils will get that opportunity, and I'll ahve to remember my lesson of the 2015 Astros to not get too excited and invested now and still look forward at that bright, bright future. Let's remember that Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec are two of the top 3-4 defenseman prospects in the sport. Hughes is only 21. The team is really young. Akira Schmid may turn into a pumpkin this year at some point, but he is a legit goalie prospect. But damn they have a shot.
The Hurricanes are beatable, given how injured they are. Would it feel as good beating a team missing 3-4 top players? Yes, you damn well bet it would. With the Bruins out of the way, the Devils would have home ice in a theoretical Eastern Conference Finals - actually would have home ice even in a theoretical Stanley Cup Final. This Devils team can win a Stanley Cup. But for me, they don't need to. I'm going to live and die, and sweat and tense up all the way, in the coming weeks but I'll know in the back of my mind, my goals for this team in 2022-23 are more than complete - getting back to reality, to the real competition is all I wanted. They've given me that and more.
