The New Jersey Devils saw their season end in disappointment. Not only did the Devils lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the team faced injuries in the second half of the season and was not a completely healthy team.
While New Jersey put up a great fight and made a five-game series feel like a seven-game series, the team knows it could have done better. The clock is beginning to tick on this young core that President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald has put together. While they still need a few more pieces to win a Stanley Cup, the pressure is mounting to make a deep playoff run.
The New Jersey Devils Still Have Room For Improvement But Playoffs Are a Must
But the health of the team is the key to the Devils success. This is what New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier told Dennis Bernstein and David Pagnotta of Sirius XM NHL Network Radio during the NHL European Tour. Hischier was asked about the frustration of not making deep playoff runs because of injury, and what the group is capable of.
DevilsNation.com Transcriptions
Dennis Bernstein: “The Devils have a talented team, but injuries have gotten in the way in the last couple of seasons, preventing you from making long playoff runs. How frustrating have the last couple of seasons been for you and the team, because we know that you have a lot of talent, but just can’t push through to get to a Conference Final or a Cup Final?”
Nico Hischier: “Yeah, very frustrated, for sure. I feel like you said, we do have a great team. If you look in our locker room, we got the guys that care. We got competitive guys that want to win. But yeah, injuries has been bothering us the last few years, and it’s hard, but I know the characters we have in there, and I know like guys that have injuries, they come back and they do whatever they can and work hard to come back stronger.
And for us, it’s, it’s going to be just a challenge to play an 82 game season the way we know we can play. And I feel that’s the challenge for every team. But it’s so important to be consistent for us, to play our game style, and we do that, we’re hard to play against, I feel like. We got the talent, I feel like, and I have confidence in that group, and I’m a big believer in anything happens for a reason, and I think we just trust the process here and move forward for the New Year.”
Do the New Jersey Devils Have One of the Best Tandems in the NHL
Missing Jack Hughes for the second half of the season and the playoffs hurt the club offensively. For most of the second half of the year, the Devils defensively were missing Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler. Jacob Markstrom missed time due to injury during stretches. Then Luke Hughes and Johnathan Kovacevic were lost in the playoffs due to injury. The hockey world has yet to see what this team can do when they are healthy over an 82-game regular season.
During stretches in the first half of the 2024-25 season, the Devils showed that, as Nico Hischier stated, they can play with any team in the league. Many pegged the Devils as a Stanley Cup contender last offseason with all the moves they made. But once again, injuries derailed them. Injuries can’t be an excuse much longer for this club that wants to improve.
Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier Ranked 11th and 14th in NHL Network’s Top 20 Center
And while many think the team runs through Jack Hughes, it is clear the Devils are Nico Hischier’s team. Hischier leads by example, and when he misses time, the team doesn’t function. The New Jersey Devils can contend with having two of the best centers in the NHL on their team. But they both have to be healthy.
You can clearly hear in Hischier’s voice that he isn’t happy having his season end early. He knows what the New Jersey Devils are capable of. There is another level he feels the team can get to, and that’s the most frustrating part. But there is a confidence surrounding the captain that hopefully bleeds over into the locker room as the New Jersey Devils look to take another step this season.
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