In their final contest of the year, the New Jersey Devils were shut out by the Boston Bruins, falling 4-0 on Tuesday.
Unable to solve Bruins’ goaltender Jeremy Swayman, the Devils ended their season with a record of 42-37-3.
After the defeat, the players reflected on the season finale with NJD.tv.
“Some major growth needs to be done, and there are going to be a lot of changes here," Connor Brown said. "But I’m very optimistic that we've got lots of pieces in here to turn this around a lot quicker than people think.”
Sharing that sentiment, captain Nico Hischier addressed missing the playoffs.
“All around just disappointed," captain Nico Hischier said of the year. "We didn’t play the way we wanted to play this year. I think it was like December, January, where we were struggling a lot, and we just couldn’t get it back. Just couldn’t find our game, and then it’s hard to come from behind. We see how tight it was this year in the East, we’ve got to find ways to be more consistent."
Despite the disappointment, captain Nico Hischier achieved a notable personal milestone in faceoff wins this season.
With an additional 10 faceoff wins, Hischier finished the season with a total of 1008. However, the accomplishment was overshadowed by the season's early end.
The Devils finished with an equal number of home and road wins over 82 games. The team went 21-17-3 at home and 21-20-0 on the road, ending with 87 points.
Reflecting on the team's outcome, Jack Hughes spoke with MSG Network following Tuesday’s game.
"Obviously, pretty bad season as an organization. As a team, so frustrating,” Hughes said. “We are where we are for a reason, so we've got to get better this summer and come back and be ready to rock for next year."
To close the season, the Devils' locker cleanout took place on Wednesday morning.
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