It was a fitting finish to a forgettable season.
The Devils, “playing” for the fourth and final time since being eliminated from playoff contention a week ago, had nothing on the line but pride. The Boston Bruins were still jockeying for playoff position, hoping to maintain their slim hold on the Eastern Conference’s first wild card spot.
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So you can imaging how things went.
The Devils no-showed the first period and hung Nico Daws out to dry on multiple occasions, in a non-competitive 4-0 loss to the Bruins on Tuesday night at TD Garden.
The Devils finished with a 42-37-3 record, good for 13th in the conference. New Jersey will miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons since setting a franchise record for points in 2022-23. The Devils have missed the playoffs in 11 of the last 14 seasons and haven’t made back-to-back postseason appearances since the 2009 and 2010 playoffs.
Tuesday’s finale turned on a nightmare of a first period for poor Nico Daws, starting consecutive NHL games for the first time since he won two-of-three from Feb. 23 to March 1, 2025.
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With Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler failing to clear pucks, losing coverages, and just generally doing the things they’ve done all season, the Bruins beat Daws with their very first shot on goal before the game was even a minute old.
Bruins center Mark Kastelic would make it 3-0, scoring at 6:14 and 17:42 to give him his second multi-goal game of the year and first since Dec. 9.
To make matters worse, Viktor Arvidsson added a goal with just eight seconds to play in the period to push it to 4-0.
And that was it.
Even though there was 40 minutes left and the Devils were well rested, having barely broken a sweat in the first, it was pretty obvious the game was over. They were almost doubled up in shots in the second period when a response might have got them back in the game.
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Trying to figure out who runs the team. They need a new President of Hockey Operations — please not Shanahan, please not Shanahan, please not Shanahan. They need a new general manager — I’d be on board with Sunny Mehta. I think they’re going to need a new head coach as well. And then they have to decide if they want to extend or trade Nico Hischier or really turn the team over to Jack and make him Captain America.
The End
Is everyone else as ready as I am to not think about the Devils till October? This season was a real slog. … On a personal note, I just wanted to thank Chris for giving me the opportunity to do this. It’s been a blast. And for all the people that read the recaps and didn’t tear me to pieces — like Rachel and Don I will try to be only bad and not terrible next season. It’s been fun talking hockey here. Hope everyone has a happy summer.
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