The New Jersey Devils’ season is over. It’s sort of hard to believe it’s over considering they raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of this game. But thanks to a second period meltdown and catastrophically bad special teams, New Jersey lost 5-4 in double overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. Their season is over after a five game, first round series.

Where do you even want to start? There is no shortage of storylines to choose from for this game or the series as a whole. Perhaps that blown 3-0 lead I referenced in the opening paragraph? It really is hard to believe, but the Devils could not have started this game any better. Dawson Mercer opened the scoring by redirecting a Brett Pesce shot home less than four minutes in. Two minutes after that, Pesce again made a play, gloving down a clearing attempt and slipping a terrific pass to Timo Meier, who ripped a shot past Pyotr Kochetkov to double the lead. Finally, in the immediate aftermath of a power play (that the Devils did not score on; put a pin in that for now), Simon Nemec wristed a shot on net, and Stefan Noesen redirected it past Kochetkov to extend the lead to 3-0 almost exactly halfway through the first.

Next, how about the second period meltdown? That began in the first period actually, when Cody Glass was called for a baffling interference penalty with about 15 seconds to go in the opening frame (hope you own a lot of pins, because we’ll need to put a pin in that angle as well). The Hurricanes did not score on the ensuing power play, but just like the Devils, they finally beat Jacob Markstrom (another pin!) right after the man advantage ended. Then Markstrom proceeded to let in two of the softest goals you will see. Jackson Blake somehow beat Markstrom on a soft, spinning wrister from an impossible angle. It’s as if Markstrom actually got out of the way to let that one through. Then a few minutes later, Andrei Svechnikov fired a wrister from distance that Markstrom just flat out whiffed on. And all of a sudden it was tied.

But the Devils did score the next goal for a huge momentum swing, thanks to Paul Cotter winning a board battle behind the net and backhanding an unbelievable pass to a cutting Nico Hischier, who wired home a shot to put the Devils back in front. But later in the second, the Hurricanes found themselves on a 5-on-3 power play, and Sebastian Aho, Carolina’s best and dirtiest player, scored to knot the game at 4. Unfortunately, Aho also scored on a power play in double overtime to end the series.

Speaking of Markstrom, it’s sort of hard to judge his performance this evening. He was the main character of that second period meltdown, but after that he absolutely locked it down. At one point he made over 30 saves in a row before the game-winner. On the one hand, the Devils could have easily won in regulation if not for Markstrom’s blowup. But on the other hand, he’s the only reason the game went as far as it did once we hit overtime, as he faced an onslaught of shots as the skaters in front of him failed to do anything to stop Carolina. In the end, Markstrom made a remarkable 49 saves on 54 shots. Because it’s Carolina, you already know that the vast majority of those shots were low danger meatballs from distance. But they did mix some quality looks in, and outside of that awful second period, Markstrom answered the call each time. I don’t know whether to blame him or thank him, I’ll let you decide.

Another storyline you could go with is the officiating in both this game and this series. I’m sorry, but the calls HEAVILY favored Carolina through all five games. Tonight for example, the Glass penalty was a joke, and it turned out to be the turning point of the entire game. On the sequence that sent Carolina to a 5-on-3 in the second, the first of those penalties was a “trip” on Tomas Tatar, when in reality Shayne Gostisbehere flat out dove. Don’t believe me because you think I’m biased? Here’s a Hurricanes beat reporter:

Carolina back to the power play as Tatar trips Gostisbehere

— Ryan Henkel (@RyanHenkel_) April 30, 2025

Pretty weak call there tbh

— Ryan Henkel (@RyanHenkel_) April 30, 2025

I included the first tweet so you have context for the one where he correctly points out how weak a call it was. Meanwhile the Hurricanes once again got away with a million different stick penalties and pick penalties themselves. Again, this was the case all series long, the most egregious of which was Brent Burns getting nothing for headbutting Timo Meier early in the series.

Please understand, I am absolutely NOT saying the officiating cost the Devils this series. How could they have when New Jersey’s power play was a rotting carcas through all five games? But my point is, the Canes were the clear beneficiaries of the whistles in this series. I know we’ve been trained as sports fans to never bark about the officials because it’s just excuse-making and sour grapes, but it’s impossible to deny how heavily the calls were tiled in favor of Carolina. It didn’t cost the Devils the series, but it sure didn’t help matters.

Then there’s, in my opinion, the biggest storyline of the series: Special teams. Carolina scored two power play goals tonight, and basically one more considering their first tally happened seconds after a penalty expired. In this series, Carolina went 6-for-19, good for a 32% conversion rate. Meanwhile the Devils’ power play…put up a big, fat goose egg. New Jersey went an astounding 0-for-15 with the man advantage in this series. In case you’re bad at math, that’s a 0% conversion rate. And not only that, but they gave up a shorthanded goal as well. In 15 power plays, the Devils were outscored 1-0. Carolina had the league’s top penalty kill during the regular season, but this was not the Hurricanes imposing their will. This was a Devils team that just completely unraveled on the power play. It got to the point where I was actually begging for the second unit to start each man advantage. They clearly generated the best looks in this series.

Here’s a wild stat for you: At even strength in this series, the Devils actually outscored the Hurricanes 11-9. For all the handwringing about New Jersey getting eaten alive by the Hurricanes’ vaunted system, for all the handwringing about the bottom-6 (one final pin there too) not contributing anything, the Devils actually outplayed the Hurricanes at even strength. But a special teams goal deficit of 7-0 (and an overall non-even strength goal deficit of 10-0) was too much to overcome.

In my opinion, special teams was the difference in this series. In double overtime tonight, Mercer got tagged for a double minor for high sticking when he followed through on a pass that caught a Hurricane up high and drew blood. And in the final minute of that double minor, Carolina scored to finish things off. It’s fitting that New Jersey’s season ended on a power play goal allowed.

There are two other storylines worth discussing as well. First we’ll talk about the elephant in the room: The frankly hilarious amount of injuries the Devils suffered both during the regular season and in this series. Jack Hughes of course has been out for a while, and a player of his caliber is irreplicable. Thankfully for the Devils, the rest of the forwards were all pretty healthy…but the same could not be said of the defensemen.

My goodness, what can you possibly say about this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an injury situation like this in my life. Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler both came back earlier than they should have, and were significantly compromised as a result. It was obvious both players were at far less than 100%, which is why I give them a ton of credit for gutting this series out. Especially Siegenthaler, who returned in Game 3 and got back to his vintage physical, max-effort style.

Elsewhere, Brett Pesce was at less than 100% according to head coach Sheldon Keefe early in the series, and it got to the point where he was a gametime decision for today’s game. He did play, and he gutted out an admirable performance as well.

Then there was the trio who didn’t make it out of this series. Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon were injured in Game 1. Dillon left and we never saw him again the rest of the way. Hughes left, returned briefly at the end of Game 1, but then couldn’t go the rest of the series. Then in Game 3, Johnny Kovacevic played only one period before leaving with an undisclosed injury. He never returned either.

That all meant that players like Simon Nemec, Dennis Cholowski, and Seamus Casey were all called into action. Cholowski was not good in his limited time, and Casey made his playoff debut tonight, and Keefe only gave him 9:13 of ice time, by far a team-low. Nemec did step up, and even putting aside his goal in double overtime of Game 3, I thought he played quite well in this series. But of course, he wasn’t even supposed to play in this series.

Finally, there was the play of the bottom-6. This is a storyline that has been beaten into the ground long before this first round, so I won’t belabor the point. I’ll just say that the Devils’ bottom-6 failed miserably in this series, just like they have since basically Christmas. Noesen’s goal in the first period tonight was the first point the bottom-6 produced in this series. Not even their first goal, their first point. If special teams or injuries didn’t cost the Devils the series, then the anemic bottom-6 did.

In the end, add all of that up and you get a five-game loss in the first round of the playoffs. It’s probably the outcome most of us expected, but I’ll tell you this: I thought it would be much more of a bloodbath. We already discussed how New Jersey was actually the better team at even strength. I would not have predicted that before the series began. Game 1 was a trainwreck, but every other game in this series saw the Devils at least put up a valiant effort. After watching this series, I firmly believe that a healthy Devils team, terrible bottom-6 and all, would have beaten this Carolina team. Probably in five or six games. The Hurricanes are fully healthy and had home-ice advantage, and they still had a lot of trouble putting away this Devils’ team. They had every advantage you can think of, and yet they only squeaked out wins in Games 2 and 5, and even Game 4 was fairly even, with Markstrom’s shoddy play being the difference there. I don’t really think the Washington Capitals are that legit either, but assuming they take care of business in their first round matchup with Montreal, Washington is going to absolutely demolish this Hurricanes team.

The season is over, and the offseason awaits. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about what this team needs to do to better position themselves for success in 2025-26, it’s a long way until the next regular season after all. But for now, it’s time to say goodbye. The New Jersey Devils are done playing hockey this season.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of the NHL’s website

Thank You

Usually we give you more sections here to focus on a few key points. But I think we already went over all we need to go over tonight. Not to mention there will be plenty of time to discuss both this game, the first round series as a whole, and the entire 2024-25 campaign during the offseason. So instead of hammering home more talking points we’ve talked about before, I just want to use this space to thank you, the People Who Matter. This is my second season writing for this blog, and while writing articles like this is painful, I still consider myself extremely privileged to be able to write for my favorite hockey team on a tremendous site like this. Even though this season did not end how we all wanted it to end, for the most part I enjoyed the ride. And I look forward to the next ride as well.

Many thanks for your support and dedication. You truly are the People Who Matter.

Next Time Out

Opening Day, 2025-26.

Your Take

The New Jersey Devils’ season has come to a close. What did you make of tonight’s game? What about this series overall? Do you agree that special teams was the most important factor? Will you continue to watch playoff hockey this season, or will you be taking a break until next season? As always, thanks for reading.