Thursday was the day we had all been waiting for as the New Jersey Devils open up the 2022-2023 NHL season against the Detroit Red Wings. Fans are always excited for the puck to drop on a new year. This year was different, with higher expectations after last year’s run to the playoffs. Some on social media even openly quipped that this might be the most-anticipated season in franchise history.
The Devils surprised everyone last year. That includes us fans who had even the most optimistic of expectations. Those expectations are even higher and for the first time in forever the rest of the league is looking at the Devils as playoff contenders. If you need more proof, just look at the fact the Devils have 13 nationally-televised games, after only having one or two thrown our way out of either pity or because of the opponent over the past ten years.
No doubt this year is highly anticipated. Is it the most anticipated in franchise history though? It’s definitely one of the most highly anticipated, but the title of “most anticipated” most likely belongs to a few other years.
What Other Years Were More Anticipated?
What about 1995? After a long lockout when people didn’t even know if there would be hockey, the puck finally dropped on a shortened season. Not only that, but the Devils were coming off their heartbreaking, borderline soul-crushing, loss to the New York Rangers during the greatest edition of the Hudson River Rivalry.
What about 1996, 2001, and 2004? All three years saw the Devils coming off a Stanley Cup championship. 1996 was the franchise’s first, and vindicated the team after that aforementioned loss to the blue shirts in the 1994 playoffs. Plus, even if the team was good, the Devils were still unexpected cup champs after sweeping the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings. 2001 and 2004 were right in the midst of the prime Stanley Cup years when repeat bids were expected.
Okay, But What About Recent Years?
Then there was 2016, 2017, and 2019. 2017 and 2019 were the first, and so far only, times the franchise had chosen first overall in the draft. Both were the debuts of Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Don’t forget in 2019, the Devils “won the offseason” by trading for P.K. Subban and Nikita Gusev as well. The year 2016 was also mentioned because that was Taylor Hall’s first home opening night as a Devil following his infamous “one-for-one” trade from the Edmonton Oilers. Getting Hall, then in the prime of his career, was just as good as having the first overall pick.
Some of those previous opening nights we mentioned all have one thing in common: their venue. All three cup championships took place at the Continental Airlines Arena, or the Meadowlands, or Brendan Byrne arena, or whatever you want to call it. Prudential Center has only played host to one cup final, a losing effort in 2012, and a whole lot of losing since then.
It’s fair to say this is the most anticipated season to happen since the Devils moved to Newark. It’s the most anticipated game since that cup final over a decade ago. We can even call it the most anticipated season in the Harris-Blitzer era.
We can’t blame our fans for being excited. We just wanted to point out that there’s more than a slight bit of hyperbole there. Hopefully the team meets, and exceeds, the hype.