The general manager questioned everything about the organization, the young players in the team’s talented core blasted their own performances and the fans wondered if what they had witnessed on the ice just one year earlier had actually happened.
The 2023-24 Devils? You bet.
But, also, the 1995-96 Devils.
As disappointing as this season has been for a franchise that had expected big things when it started, it isn’t nearly as frustrating or shocking as the one that unfolded 28 years ago in the Meadowlands. These Devils can learn a lesson from those Devils — and, for anyone searching for a rainbow in the cloudy skies over Newark this week, team history offers some hope for the future.
That ‘95-96 team became the first defending Stanley Cup champions to miss the playoffs in more than a quarter century, and the reactions to it bordered on hysteria. One report described a “monumental sense of failure and stigma” that left the Devils facing “a crossroads in franchise history.” But the media reports could top the doom-and-gloom offered from the key figures on the team itself.
“Losing will not be tolerated,” then GM Lou Lamoriello declared, while center Bobby Holik told reporters that “something has to be done” to shake up the team’s core. Others players seemed stunned at a lack of urgency — sound familiar? — as the team muddled through a mediocre March and April with the final playoff spot within reach.
Flash forward to 2024, and you’ll find plenty of parallels. Current GM Tom Fitzgerald stopped short of Lamoriello’s the-buck-stops-here refrain when he addressed the media on Tuesday morning, one day after firing head coach Lindy Ruff, but he criticized his players and questioned their commitment to the style of hockey that wins championships.
The players didn’t push back, either. “Sometimes, we just get out-battled and out-played — there’s not much a coach can do standing behind the bench,” star center Jack Hughes said. The listless losses to Anaheim and Los Angeles that led to Ruff’s dismissal also seemed to leave a sense of resignation with the players about their fate.
“No one in this room is ever going to give up on this team,” captain Nico Hischier said at the morning skate before the team played Florida, but his words sounded less than convincing. The result against the first-place Panthers was no surprise — a better effort, maybe, but a 5-3 loss that further buried the Devils in the standings.
Look: This happens sometimes. It is important to remember that few contenders have a truly linear rise to the top of a league. The Devils have plenty of built-in excuses for what happened in 2023-24, from the November injury to top defenseman Dougie Hamilton, to the injuries that sidelined top players Hughes and Timo Meier, to the over reliance on teenage defenseman Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec before they are truly ready.
The reality is, however, that these Devils have never even resembled the high-powered team that started last season. The competition caught up to their style of play midway through last season and, for the most part, they never adjusted. I asked Fitzgerald the question that should scare all fans: Is this team the aberration? Or was it last season? His full answer:
“Ideally, this was last year and last year was this year,” Fitzgerald replied. “A lot of things went well for us last year. Our top players weren’t injured. Players had career years. We got average to above average goaltending. We won a lot of OT games. We went on a 13-game win streak — that’s a pretty good cushion.
“The reality is, we became a team that teams recognized they had talent and they had to play a certain way against us. The NHL is hard. Teams play us differently this year, but I also think that’s an unbelievable learning curve for how we need to play when teams shut it down on us. Are we willing to win 1-0, 2-1? Those are questions I have. I’m not sure the answer is yes right now.”
That, in short, is a GM wondering if the team he built can compete for a Stanley Cup. It was a damning and accurate assessment, and reminder of just how important an offseason he’ll face if the Devils are going to change that.
Team history, again, offers hopes. The Devils didn’t miss the playoffs for a decade and a half after the 1995-96 flop, and while they had disappointing results in the immediate years that followed, added a couple of Cups to their resume. That core of players is remembered as a truly great team and the standard for all to follow.
How will history remember these Devils? It depends on what happens here. Maybe the 2023-24 season is proof that they were never as good as the fan base had hoped. Or maybe it is the kind of adversity that great teams use to fuel their future success. We’ll know soon.
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.