In an 82-game hockey season, a fast start doesn’t mean anything regarding the end of the season. There is no “rich get richer, while the poor get poorer,” and there are many times when the teams that have the hottest starts end up falling flat as playoffs near. The New Jersey Devils are currently the only undefeated team in the league with a 3-0-0 record, but they cannot boast about being at the top just yet, since they still have more than six months and 79 games to get through.
Last season, the team made its first playoffs appearance since losing to the Los Angeles Kings in 2012. That following season, which was shortened due to the NHL lockout, started the decline of the Devils, as well as the push for a team rebuild. But if you had only focused on the team’s first 12 games, it would seem that the team was setting itself up for a successful season. Facing only one loss in regulation, it appeared that New Jersey would do just fine after suffering major losses from the team in the previous offseason from captain Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk the offseason after.
That clearly wasn’t the case. At the end of the 2012-2013 season, the Devils were 19-19-10, placing them at the bottom of the Atlantic Division and commencing the five-season-long playoff drought they faced until 2018.
In 2014, fans received some hope in the form of a three-win streak to start out the season. That quickly changed, when New Jersey lost nine of the following 12 games. That season, the team finished seventh in the Metropolitan Division, far away from any potential playoff run.
The start of the 2017-2018 season signaled a shifting tide for the team, although it closely resembled previous season’s starts. Out of the first 11 games of the season, the Devils were only defeated twice, at the hands of the future Stanley Cup champions the Washington Capitals and the San Jose Sharks.
Finishing fourth in the Metropolitan Division, they were able to tie with the Columbus Blue Jackets for points and snag the second Wild Card seed in the Eastern Conference. While the Devils did not make it past the first round, facing a 4-1 defeat by the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was not a disappointing loss.
The Lightning were clearly the stronger team, both throughout the regular season and during the playoffs, and a Devils win would have meant an upset of the Eastern Conference regular season champions.
The 2018 playoffs played an important role of setting the Devils up for this season, as strange as that may sound. The team had not been to the playoffs since 2012, and many of the young players had never been to the playoffs at all. It provided the team with the experience needed to mesh the players as a unit further, and give them that extra confidence that was previously so desperately needed when they stepped on the ice.
Now, the Devils are finding themselves sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division, right behind the Carolina Hurricanes. Forward Kyle Palmieri has set the franchise record for most goals by any player in the first three games of the season, and the team has already defeated the defending Stanley Cup champions as well as the team many have predicted to win the Stanley Cup in 2019, the San Jose Sharks.
Although it is impossible to predict how the Devils will play this season and whether or not this is just another false start for the team, the progress they have made so far this season, as well as the results they yielded last season, are good indications that they can and will make a deeper playoff run this season.
The roster hasn’t changed much from last season, but Marcus Johansson is healthy again, and most of the team’s current roster is showing strong play on the ice, including goaltender Keith Kinkaid, who was able to shut out the Capitals in a 6-0 win.
As long as players can avoid injury and avoid burning out early on, the Devils have a great shot at being a threat for the Stanley Cup when the playoffs come around. It will just be a matter of using the momentum they’ve already gained to move the team forward, instead of sitting on their heels in the wake of their early success.
