A second trip to the playoffs in three seasons means that the New Jersey Devils can certainly explain that their extended rebuilding is complete.
For Detroit Red Wings, such emotions must again wait until next year.
The devils will continue to prepare for the playoffs while the red wings continue to play the string Wednesday night when the team meets in Newark, NJ
The devils end a back-to-back set after lining the host Boston Bruins 5-4 on overtime on Tuesday. The red wings were on Tuesday, one day after beating the visiting Dallas stars 6-4.
With their playoffs Seed and a three-game losing line snapped Tuesday, the devils (42-32-7, 91 points) have just a goal on Wednesday: to leave their regular season final as close to full health as possible.
New Jersey will finish in third place in the Metropolitan Division and meet second place Carolina Hurricanes in the first round after the season.
The devils avoid a scare on Tuesday, when the left wing Ondrej palace went out after blocking a couple of shots during the first period. Coach Sheldon Keefe said that the -rays were negative but that palace would sit on Wednesday, when New Jersey can also rest several other players.
The devils scraped seven players Tuesday, when they were also without forward Paul Cotter, who served the first competition in a two-game suspension to deliver an illegal control to the head of the New York Islanders Adam Pelech on Sunday.
“Our whole group, we have to look at,” Keefe said. “We have a number of guys here today – a combination of guys who are on our injured list that breastfeeds some things and only have some conversations with how guys feel like making the right decision (Wednesday) and making sure we don’t put anyone into damage unnecessarily.”
The devils, which reached the eastern conference semi -final 2023, last made the playoffs twice in a three -year period from 2010 to 2012. They reached the season only once during the following ten years.
The red wings (38-35-7, 83 points) will miss the playoffs for the ninth year in a row-a franchise record that began immediately after Detroit set a warehouse record by reaching after the 25 straight times season.
The red wings seemed as if they could snap the line when they went 9-1-1 from January 23 to February 25 to move into the East’s first Wild-Card place, four points clearly from ninth place. However, Detroit has since gone 8-13-1 and was eliminated from battle on Saturday when the Montreal Canadiens earned a point in a 1-0 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Detroit will miss the playoffs by a larger margin and finish with fewer points this season than last season, when the red wings band Washington Capitals for the second Wild-Card place at 91 points but lost the regulatory wine Tiebreaker.
“We had a clear goal that came into this season, how close we were last year,” said the left -wing Lucas Raymond, which was credited with the winning goal Monday after scoring the third of Red Wing’s four third period. “The only next step we could take was to make the playoffs, and we were very determined to get there.
“We couldn’t do it and we know it, and it’s about looking at ourselves and finding out what we need to do as a team to take the next step.”
-Field level media
