5 Lessons the Devils Can Learn From 2024 Playoff Teams

This season, the Washington Capitals made significant progress after hiring a coach who has won at the AHL level but has not yet been an NHL coach. Spencer Carbery, a former AHL Coach of the Year, took over in Washington, guided a team in transition through a difficult regular season, and outlasted several division rivals, including New Jersey, on the path to securing the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Carbery commanded the room and got a team to play a style and system conducive to winning, ultimately producing results. Similarly, the Edmonton Oilers hired Kris Knoblauch from the AHL a month into this season, and he piloted the team to the playoffs, erasing a difficult start. The blueprint exists for Fitzgerald; he should not limit himself to only coaches with NHL experience; history has shown that the path is not always the most direct to a Stanley Cup.

LTIR: Use it or Lose it

When defenseman Dougie Hamilton went down six weeks into the season with a torn pectoral muscle that would surely cost him the remainder of the regular season, it was a huge blow to the Devils’ chances of recreating the magic of the 2022-23 season. The one silver lining for New Jersey should have been the potential for additional cap space that putting your highest-paid player on Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) provides. Once it was certain that Hamilton was unlikely to return until at least the start of the playoffs, the Devils could go up to $9 million over the salary cap once Hamilton was put on LTIR.

For a team with several gaping holes, including defense and goaltending, this newfound money should have solved the team’s personnel issues. The Devils should have moved quickly earlier in the season when it was clear that reinforcements were needed on the back end. Instead, the team chose to largely not touch the money earmarked for LTIR and only added backup goaltending at the trade deadline. Failing to weaponize LTIR likely cost them an opportunity to make the playoffs.

A Change Will Do You Good

The Devils must look no further than across the Hudson River to see how much and quickly a team can benefit from a style and system change. Last season under Gerard Gallant, the New York Rangers played loose; they were dominant on special teams but got caved in at 5v5. This season, with nearly the same personnel, the team is playing more structured and connected and finding ways to close out games with defense. Much of that should be attributed to the 1-3-1 defensive system installed by New head coach Peter Laviolette. Gone are the days of the team forsaking defense when leading in the third period and allowing multiple goals comebacks. This season’s version of the Rangers grinds out games in the third period, making it difficult to erase deficits.

Like the Rangers, the Winnipeg Jets also made small but effective changes. Amid rumors of a bad locker room and issues on the team, the general manager shipped out cornerstone players to improve his team’s depth. These moves demonstrated to his best players that he was building a team to compete now, and then signed those players to long-term contracts and gave head coach Rick Bowness a full season. With those small but impactful changes, the Jets often played like the best team in the NHL and entered the playoffs as one of the favorites.

The Devils should learn from these teams, to be honest with themselves. Immaturity was a common mantra throughout the second half of the season. Fitzgerald needs to ascertain if there are bigger issues, remove the problems from the locker room, and find a system that best fits his talent and a coach who will implement the system with the buy-in of his best players. Fortune favors the bold, and with the Devils teetering on the precipice of success, it is time for Fitzgerald to be bold.

Home Ice Advantage

One unfortunate Hallmark of the Lindy Ruff era in New Jersey was the inability to be dominant at home. Far too often, especially this season, less talented teams found ways to escape Newark with points. Ruff often said the team played a simpler game on the road and tried to put on a show for the fans at home, sometimes to their detriment. One needs only look back at the raucous atmosphere in the Prudential Center last April and May to see that there is no issue with the building or fans; there is support. The next coach needs to figure out how to get the team to own its building in a way like the Rangers or Carolina Hurricanes have in this year’s playoffs.

All facets of game production in the arena should be reviewed and considered to determine how they assist with the team’s success at home. It may be time to update or begin new traditions with the fan base. The fans have shown up and proven that if New Jersey is a competitive team, they will fill the building and provide energy; the team now must feed off that energy and find a way to be more dominant at home. The goal differential at home was a staggering -20 while being +3 on the road. Only one other team had a negative goal differential larger at home than on the road, the Minnesota Wild, and the split was two goals, not 17. If the Devils had played even at home, they are in the playoffs. With this being the second straight season where the road goal differential is better than the home differential, the organization should spend time rethinking and remodeling.

Loser Points Matter

One Hallmark of a team learning to win is finding a way into overtime to accumulate at least the one point a team gets for an overtime or shootout loss. This “loser point” is why the New York Islanders played beyond game 82, and the Devils did not. Far too many times this season, the Devils found themselves in close games as the clock wound down in the third period, needing either to maintain a tie or score a goal to tie, and were unable to finish the game with at least one point. More maddening is that the Devils are built for overtime. Their combination of speed and skill makes them dominant at 3v3 play and often is enough to secure that second point once the first is in the bag.

The Devils finished the season with more regulation wins than either the New York Islanders or the Capitals, both teams who made the playoffs ahead of them. The Islanders gained a staggering 16 points from losses, the Capitals 11. Had the Devils taken one more game a month into overtime, they would have been ahead of both teams and in the playoffs. Not to be overlooked is that the Islanders and Capitals are veteran teams with significant playoff experience and understand the importance of a point in October, perhaps more than the young Devils. After this season, that has to change. The excuse of youthful inexperience can no longer be tolerated if the club wants to take the next step.

Missing the playoffs this season was a massive disappointment for the Devils. Fortunately, they are not far away from a return to the postseason. They have the talent in the dressing room to compete for titles over the next decade, but they must make adjustments and learn from the successful teams if they want to vindicate their potential.