The worst season in nearly three decades is just a recent memory
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The New Jersey Devils are back in the playoffs, and again in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. It’s like old times.
The Devils completed a remarkable comeback season by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Thursday night to clinch their first postseason berth since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012.
It capped an offseason and regular season that saw general manager Ray Shero reshape half his 25-man roster through free agency, the draft and trades and have John Hynes make all the right moves to keep his team in a playoff position every day of the season.
Not bad for a club that won 28 games and finished last in the Eastern Conference in 2016-17.
”This is the best, the best,” said veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. ”My first stint in Pittsburgh and Anaheim and then again in Pittsburgh, I never appreciated what baseball players did. I thought it was stupid when they would come in and have champagne when they made the playoffs. I get it now. Making the playoffs is hard.”
The Devils can point to so many players in bouncing back from their worst season since 1988-89. Taylor Hall (39 goals, 54 assists) had a career year that teammates feel merits the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. Top draft pick Nico Hischier overcame a slow start to have 19 goals and 51 points. Free agent Will Butcher set a team record for rookie defensemen with 44 points.
The unsung hero was goaltender Keith Kinkaid, who stepped for an injured Cory Schneider and carried the team over the final 10 weeks, going 10-1-1 in the last 12 games and helping the New York-metropolitan area avoid being shut out of the postseason for the first time since the Devils took up residence in New Jersey in 1982. The Rangers and Islanders will miss the postseason.
”It’s fun, but playoffs are a new breed,” said Kinkaid
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There are only two players left from the Devils’ 2011-12 team: defenseman and captain Andy Greene, and Travis Zajac, who centers the line Hynes’ uses against the opponent’s top line.
While there have been lean years, Zajac said the Devils rediscovered themselves this season. They practiced and played hard, and made sure opponents knew they were in for a battle every game.
The results have been a 44-28-9 record that includes a 25-8-9 mark in one-goal games. It was a record that reminded many of the old Devils, a franchise that made the playoffs 20 of 22 times and won three Cups between 1989-90 and 2011-12.
This group, however, skates faster and is relentless.
Last year, the Devils were disappointing underachievers. Their biggest sin was failing to compete every night. And they paid the price, especially down the stretch when they went 3-17-4.
Hynes and Shero changed that. It started with the roster makeover that included the signing of veteran Brian Boyle, and an attitude readjustment.
”It’s a different skill set and youth,” said Shero
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With a game to play, the Devils won’t learn their first-round opponent until Saturday at the earliest. They are the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, and they will at least stay there if they win at Washington on Saturday night. They also could go up or down depending on what Columbus, Philadelphia, Florida and Pittsburgh do.
It really doesn’t matter. The Devils are just looking forward to the postseason.
”You go into this year thinking it’s going to be a bigger challenge,” said Boyle, who provided inspiration by overcoming cancer early in the season. ”Plenty of people were writing us off. It makes it pretty sweet to clinch. I have just tried to tell everyone: `It’s going to be so much fun. You have never played hockey this fun in your life until you play playoff hockey.”’
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More NHL hockey: Jhoulys Chacin settled down nicely after a rough start.
Trailing 2-0 after the first three batters of the game, Chacin threw seven solid innings and Hernan Perez homered among his three hits, leading the Milwaukee Brewers to a 7-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night in a matchup of first-place teams.
NL Central Division-leading Milwaukee won its fourth game in a row to go 17 games over .500 (52-35) for the first time since July 1, 2014, when the Brewers were 51-34.
Chacin (7-3) gave up three hits and two earned runs while matching a season high with seven strikeouts in what tied for his longest outing this year. The right-hander
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”Jhoulys pitched excellent – after the first,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. ”He locked it in and made some really good pitches the rest of the night.”
Dan Jennings pitched two perfect innings for his first save this season, and second of his career.
NL East-leading Atlanta dropped its third consecutive game after winning four straight – and lost for the first time this season on a Thursday (7-1).
Braves left-hander Max Fried (1-3) lasted only three innings in his third start of the season, giving up four earned runs and four hits with three walks.
”He had a blister starting and he’s had a history of the blister thing,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. ”And when it kind of surfaced, I decided I didn’t want to take any chances, so I shut him down.”
Atlanta gave Fried a 2-0 lead in the first, but he allowed a run in the bottom of the frame and did not help his cause in the second. After a leadoff triple by Perez and a walk to Keon Broxton, Milwaukee tied it at 2 on a single by Tyler Saladino. Fried failed to hold the runners on first and second by not even looking at them, so Broxton and Saladino converted a double steal. Erik Kratz’s groundout scored Broxton to give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead.
”We’re getting the right guys out there, trying to do our homework and find spots when we can take advantage of something
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Then, Fried not only walked Chacin, he fired a wild pitch that bounced off the backstop on ball four. Catcher Tyler Flowers retrieved the ball and threw to Fried covering the plate. But Saladino – who appeared to be an easy out – slid awkwardly in front of the plate and knocked it out of the pitcher’s glove. Saladino got up and stepped on the plate for a 4-2 lead.
Perez hit a two-run homer – his fifth – off reliever Dan Winkler in the eighth.
MORE MOUND MISCUES
In the first, Ozzie Albies scored from third on a grounder hit by Freddie Freeman. Chacin fielded the ball, looked at Albies and then slowly lobbed a high toss to first which allowed the speedster to score without a throw home. … In the eighth, Winkler’s pickoff attempt at first hit Jonathan Villar in the head and the ball ended up in Milwaukee’s dugout for an error. Villar took second and scored on a single by Christian Yelich.
FREEMAN STILL SLUMPING
In his previous nine games in Milwaukee, Freeman was hitting .419 (13-for-31) with six home runs and seven walks. But that did not end his slump, as he was 0 for 3 and is now batting .154 (10-for-65) in his last 16 games.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: RHP Julio Tehran is not in Milwaukee after coming down with an illness while the team was in New York. Since he was not scheduled to start against the Brewers, the Braves sent him back to Atlanta.
Brewers: INF Saladino (left ankle sprain) was activated from the disabled list and INF Eric Sogard was designated for assignment.
UP NEXT
Braves: RHP Mike Foltynewicz (6-4, 2.02) is 1-1 all-time against Milwaukee.
Brewers: Rookie RHP Freddy Peralta (3-1, 2.28) makes his sixth start.
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