In a league that is defined by parity — now defined as a few elite teams then everyone else — only a small number of clubs can be considered really out of the playoff picture. Unfortunately for those on the other side of the Hudson, that includes the Devils.
It has been a brutal season in New Jersey, where general manager Ray Shero and head coach John Hynes were hoping to build on the franchise’s first postseason berth five years. But after a conspicuously quiet offseason from Shero, the young team has imploded and will enter the Christmas break trying to figure out a way out of the basement of the Eastern Conference.