This is being disingenuous. The Devils made the playoffs every year from '97-'10, missed in '11 for a variety of reasons, and then hit 102 points in 2012. They definitely had a few more playoff berths if Parise and Kovalchuk didn't leave right after. Why the Devils weren't a fluke:
- above average possession
- 5th leading scorer (Kovalchuk), 10th leading scorer (Elias); 22nd leading scorer (Parise); Great secondary scoring from guys like Clarkson (30 goals), Henrique (48 points); Sykora (20 goals); Zubrus (44 points); Ponikarovsky (also .5ppg+); All this and they were missing Zajac who was hitting 50-60 points per year then.
- Andy Greene was basically M.E. Vlasic, Slavin, and Pelech back then. A top 5 shutdown dman who regularly shutdown top opponents. Ask Giroux how his series went against Greene-Fayne.
Yes, they did get lucky to avoid certain opponents. They 100% lose to Boston and probably Pittsburgh as well. What a lot of people don't remember is Brodeur nearly blew round 1 against the Panthers. He was so bad that series. NJ decisively outplayed their opposition until the SCF, though. It's not like they were lucky to get there.