The Devils will start their season Thursday against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers, who all but assured Wednesday that New Jersey’s opener will go better than their own.
The Flyers will look to bounce back from a historic season-opening defeat when they face the Devils in Newark, N.J.
Philadelphia set a franchise record for the largest margin of defeat in a season opener on Wednesday, when they fell to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins 7-0 in the rematch of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series from last spring.
The Devils are looking to return to the playoffs after finishing seventh in the Metropolitan Division last season with a 42-37-3 record (87 points).
The lopsided loss on Wednesday was doubly disappointing for the Flyers, who hoped to maintain the momentum they built during last season’s trip to the playoffs.
Philadelphia snapped a five-year postseason drought by winning 12 of its final 16 games to finish third in the Metro. The Flyers then knocked out the Penguins in six games to advance to the conference semifinals, where they took a pair of overtime defeats during a four-game sweep at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.
However, there was no building on last season on Wednesday for the Flyers, who gave up at least two goals in every period and were outshot 38-19. The seven-goal defeat was the worst for Philadelphia since a 7-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 9, 2024.
The Flyers gave up seven goals just once last season, when the Lightning earned a 7-2 win in Philadelphia on Jan. 10.
Dan Vladar played the full game in net for the Flyers, facing 38 shots.
“There’s no panic — nothing,” Flyers center and captain Sean Couturier said. “But I just think we’ve got to realize that we’re not that good. What happened last year is last year and you’ve got to move on. And it’s a fresh year.”
A fresh start will be welcomed by the Devils and in particular star center Jack Hughes, who led New Jersey with 77 points and ranked second with 27 goals despite missing 21 games.
The Devils went 8-13-0 without Hughes, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft. They were 8-10-0 from Nov. 15 through Dec. 19 while he recovered from a fluky hand injury sustained during a team dinner, and they dropped their final three games before the Olympic break as Hughes battled a lower-body injury.
The Devils will return their top eight scorers as well as goalie Jake Allen, who established himself as New Jersey’s No. 1 goalie by going 17-17-2 in 36 starts — his most since 2022-23.
New Jersey alternated playoff trips with missing out on the postseason over the past four years.
“The expectations within our locker room are high,” said Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon, who is entering his third season with the team. “We want to be one of the top teams — a team (that could) win the Stanley Cup. … So the expectations are high, and we want them to be.”
