3 things the New Jersey Devils need to do to get back in the playoffs race

The Devils are currently eight points out of a playoff spot with 20 games to play. They're going to have to play their best hockey down the stretch to get back into the playoff race.

Feb 17, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New Jersey Devils goaltender Nico Daws (50) and / Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

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2) The Devils need to improve on the power play

For much of the season, the Devils' saving grace was their power play. They were having all sorts of struggles defensively and in net, but when given the chance on the Power Play they'd come through at an elite clip. In fact, they ranked second in the NHL on the man advantage before the calendar flipped to the new year according to StatMuse.

Since the start of 2024, a switch flipped, and the Devils' power play has been completely invisible. They now rank 12th in the league on the power play according to Covers.com, and that's with it performing at a stronger clip of late. They went on a 2-for-46 stretch on the power play at one point. It was that bad.

Why the Devils were so awful on the power play is a mystery. Sure, Jack Hughes missed some time and the Dougie Hamilton injury hurts, but there are great goal scorers all over the place with Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, and Tyler Toffoli. The Devils coaching staff deserves some blame for never making any adjustments with their power play units, but at the end of the day, the players need to execute.

It's really hard to score 5-on-5, the power play is supposed to be an advantage. The Devils have had trouble scoring as much of late. One way for them to do that would be by taking advantage of opportunities handed to them by scoring with the man advantage.

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