There are division rivals a team can't wait to face. Others, not so much.
Take the Washington Capitals, for example, who've already seen enough of their Metropolitan Division rivals in New Jersey.
"Thankfully, we're done with the New Jersey Devils this year," Capitals' coach Spencer Carbery joked in late December. "They've got a great team. We had some good battles against them. They've got a real good team, a well-rounded hockey team."
Theirs was an evenly matched series in the end -- with New Jersey the overall victor at 2-1-0 -- but Carbery's relief in being free of the Devils (for this regular season, at least) is a testament to how strong their rivals up I-95 have been this season. Washington is leading the Metro after all, but the Devils are hot on their heels battling for second place.
New Jersey is coming off a brutal 2023-24 campaign that produced a 38-39-5 record, and missed playoff berth for the 10th time in 12 seasons. One year prior, the Devils had been the league's Cinderella story, surging through their season (at 52-22-8) to make a powerful playoff push, and advancing past another major Metro rival -- the New York Rangers -- in the first round before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second.
The Devils' abysmal follow-up to that feat led to layers of fallout within the organization -- including coach Lindy Ruff's firing -- while raising red flags about the club's readiness to be true contenders. GM Tom Fitzgerald had tinkered long enough. When would we start seeing consistent results?
Well, we're about to find out. New Jersey is fourth in the Eastern Conference at 25-15-4 and firmly on track to the playoffs as the season's second half approaches. But will the Devils stay on course? And are they built to last? Other teams have been through setbacks and eventually flourished. There's a blueprint out there to go from zero to (postseason) hero.
What would that look like for New Jersey? And which past success stories could they use as a roadmap?
The great ones, it seems, all start with good bones.
PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE. Perseverance is, too.
The Colorado Avalanche needed both to become a behemoth.
Let's go back to 2016-17. Colorado finished last in the league that season, with a 22-56-4 record while allowing the most goals against and scoring the fewest. It was the worst season on record for the Avalanche since they moved to Denver in 1995 and the second-worst in franchise history overall.
So how did Colorado go from being a hot mess to making seven consecutive playoff appearances and winning a Cup in 2022? Glad you asked.
It started with establishing a strong core and building from there. Colorado was rooted to Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Erik Johnson. Then GM Joe Sakic added critical pieces to the group like Cale Makar, Samuel Girard, Bowen Byram and Devon Toews. The Avalanche's nucleus rounded carefully into form.
Then there was picking the right coach. When Patrick Roy abruptly resigned in 2016, Sakic tapped rookie NHL head coach Jared Bednar as successor. And yes, Bednar's first go-around ended with the Avs as bottom-dwellers. But since then, he has solidly stabilized Colorado from behind the bench.
Then it was about key trades and free agent signings. Sakic brought on Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin, Toews and others -- including a No. 1 netminder in Darcy Kuemper to backstop Colorado on their eventual Cup-winning run.
All in all, it took years for Colorado to peak. But the climb was clearly worth the cresting views. And the Devils are attempting to follow a similar blueprint.
The Devils have a solidified core, with headliners Jack Hughes (already in his fifth NHL season), Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes and Šimon Nemec.
Fitzgerald has expanded the Devils with other key skaters. He signed Dougie Hamilton in 2021 and continued bolstering the blue line with free agents Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon this offseason. The offense got a boost from Fitzgerald signing two-time Cup champion Ondrej Palat and trading for Timo Meier. His best work was trading for goaltender Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames in July, finally giving his team the consistent goaltending it lacked in recent years.
The GM is confident after letting go of Ruff -- and his interim replacement Travis Green -- that he's invested in the right coach with Sheldon Keefe. The Devils hired Keefe just days after he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in May after four seasons there. New Jersey is only the second NHL head coaching gig for Keefe, but the transition to New Jersey has been fairly smooth -- and generally well-received, based on early returns.
Piece by piece, Fitzgerald -- like Sakic -- has tried creating a roster to stand the test of time, where players align in a coach's system designed to take New Jersey over the top.
Jacob Markstrom makes a nice save in the third period for the Devils.
It's not easy. Health has been an issue for New Jersey. Last season, Hughes was limited to 62 games, while Hamilton was out for all but 20 (after he posted 74 points in 82 games the year prior). Meier was sidelined for 13 games and Hischier was gone for 11. Injury absences are among the inevitabilities that every team must simply endure. Much like a few growing pains.
Colorado found that out, too. Once they were back in the postseason field, the Avalanche failed to get past the second round for four consecutive years before the Cup victory. New Jersey might need the same postseason learning experiences -- something most of the roster doesn't have yet -- to be properly seasoned for a Cup Final run.
Because scaling that mountain requires a steady ascent, and Keefe believes his approach will provide New Jersey will the correct footing.
"Our vision is to win the Stanley Cup, and that's very clear," Keefe said during his introductory press conference. "To win the Stanley Cup, you have to make the playoffs, and it's about establishing a process we'll adhere to on a daily basis and ultimately see the sustained, high performance that will lead us to have an opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup."
Barring a second-half collapse, the Devils are on their way to seeing spring hockey return to The Rock. But how well-positioned is New Jersey to make the most of what opportunity awaits when they arrive?
FITZGERALD HASN'T LOOKED FAR for inspiration in retooling the Devils.
His goal was to recreate New Jersey in its own image, with a strong offensive skillset that would also have fans "reminiscing of the past Devils teams of being heavy [and] harder to play against."
He's referencing, of course, that star-driven golden age of New Jersey hockey which included three Cup wins from 1995 to 2003. Whether Fitzgerald is crafting a club with such capability will be reflected in -- and determined by -- New Jersey's postseason performance.
The biggest overhaul Fitzgerald had to make on this quest to contend was in the crease. Last season, the Devils churned through five different goaltending options and never landed on a suitable starter. Fitzgerald eventually traded would-be No.1 Vitek Vanecek (and his .890 save percentage) to San Jose and brought in Jake Allen to finish out the campaign. The Devils finished with the fifth-worst goals-against average (3.43) in the league.
The GM was aggressive in patching that particular hole when he acquired Markstrom from Calgary for a 2025 first-round pick and defenseman Kevin Bahl. That move was projected to shore the team up where they most needed support -- and Markstrom has delivered in fine form. The veteran is tied for the second-most wins among goalies (20-8-3) with a .911 save percentage and 2.20 goals-against average. And Allen is proving to be a fine backup (.901 SV%, 2.76 GAA).
That tandem gives the Devils peace of mind in goal that they haven't enjoyed of late. However, the goalies can't be all that makes New Jersey a tough out, as Fitzgerald wants them to be. And the Devils' recent skid is a prime example of what happens when the team's offense dries up -- and defensive details take a hit.
The Devils have been focused on grooming Hughes and Nemec to carry their back end. Hamilton, Pesce and Dillon are meant to be guiding that process. Markstrom should provide ample confidence that what does get through has a good chance to staying out. That's the way Fitzgerald drew it up, anyway.
"The fun part is building around the edges, building the complementary guys you need," Fitzgerald said. "Now you're putting together a contender, and you're checking off all the different boxes that contenders have. The last thing I was worried about (entering free agency) was the offense on this team. It was everything else that we needed to build up and check boxes, and we've done that."
The Devils haven't been immune to setbacks, though. On a six-game stretch from December into January the Devils were a woeful 1-4-1, getting outscored 19-11. There's been blame to go around -- the top skaters (especially Hischier) have slowed at 5-on-5, the Devils' bottom-six isn't producing at all and outside of the Jonas Siegenthaler-Johnathan Kovacevic pairing, there wasn't complete defensive buy-in. Markstrom did an admirable job holding the Devils in just about every game, which is further proof of his difference-making ability. But again, he can't do it alone.
And therein lies the big question for New Jersey: When their offense goes cold, is there enough juice defensively to keep them in contention? It's a problem Keefe is intimately familiar with from his time in Toronto. When the Maple Leafs' so-called Core Four (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares) didn't make it on the scoresheet, Toronto was generally headed for another L (particularly in the postseason). Is New Jersey doomed for the same fate?
"It's hard to predict what the playoff Devils can look like," one Eastern Conference executive said. "Can you compare this team to the one two years ago? Maybe. But they've arguably changed for the better since then. It does feel a bit like Toronto, though. Regular season success won't matter if New Jersey can't turn Hughes and those guys into playoff performers."
WHAT ELSE CAN Fitzgerald do to ensure New Jersey's best outcomes are still ahead? He should turn his attention fully towards the trade deadline -- where the Devils can't be complacent in their approach.
The team would benefit from boosting its center depth, and a source confirmed the Devils' interest in Montreal Canadiens' pivot Jake Evans as a potential target. Evans is having a career-best season in Montreal, with 10 goals and 23 points in 41 games, and he'd be an ideal addition to New Jersey's third or fourth line. The Devils might also look at bringing in pending UFAs like Brock Nelson or Yanni Gourde as low-risk, bottom-six depth options.
The Devils could explore some insurance for their back end, too, due to the club's injury history there (Hughes and Pesce have already been sidelined by ailments this season). Cody Ceci -- another pending UFA -- is an intriguing veteran option with playoff experience.
Any changes would have to complement what Fitzgerald has done to date. The hard work of building up New Jersey is already done. It just hasn't manifested in playoff success -- potentially until now.
Colorado showed how to go from worst to first. New Jersey's trajectory to this stage -- let's call it base camp -- has mirrored the Avalanche's past journey in multiple ways.
The NHL is a results-driven league, though. The Devils don't have much to show for themselves yet. But it feels like the door has been cracked on New Jersey's time to contend, and usher in the franchise's next winning era.
Are they ready for it? Let the (real) games begin.