Devils playoff berth even sweeter for Andy Greene and Travis Zajac

NEWARK – After the final buzzer sounded on Thursday night and a few moments after a sellout Prudential Center crowd began chanting “We want the Cup,” two longtime Devils embraced on the ice.

Travis Zajac skated up behind Andy Greene, wrapped his arms around the captain and picked him up. Greene turned around and returned the embrace, hugging his longtime teammate.

“It was a little hug, a little smile and we just said, 'It's about time we're back,’” Greene later told reporters in the locker room. “It was a lot of emotions.”

The 2-1 win by the Devils over the Toronto Maple Leafs that preceded that center-ice bro hug effectively sealed a playoff spot for New Jersey, their first since 2012. The last time the Devils were in the postseason, they were reached the pinnacle but couldn’t finish the job. The upstart Los Angeles Kings defeated them in five games and went on to beat another area team, the Rangers, two years later to win their second Stanley Cup.

Meanwhile, the Devils sunk to an unfamiliar place: Out of the playoffs entirely.

A team that was once a perennial contender has fallen on times harder than any other in franchise history. The five-year playoff drought matched the longest in franchise history. But that last drought wasn’t even in the salary cap era. The Devils haven’t had a drought like this one since the team was relocated from Colorado in the early 80s.

Greene, the Devils’ longtime captain, and Zajac, an alternate captain, have never played for another organization. Zajac arrived more than a decade ago, in 2006, after a stellar college career at North Dakota. Greene came a year later from the AHL after finishing his career at Miami (Ohio).

They were young kids dropped into a situation where they had to compete and contribute right away, because the Devils were contending right away, just as they always had.

“When we first came in here, it wasn’t whether we were going to make the playoffs it was whether we were going to have home ice,” Greene said.

The two blossomed into core players, playing up to the high expectations set forth each year.

But then came the end of an era. The Devils couldn’t hang on to all of the free agents after 2012. Their franchise cornerstones eventually retired. Several others entered and exited and the team was eventually rebuilt along with the front office.

Through it all, Zajac and Greene remained committed to the organization.

“When you look at the transition, they had a few tough years,” coach John Hynes sasid. “And for those guys to go through different coaches, different general manager – lots of things have changed. But they’ve still remained part of the fabric of what our team is.”

They’ve remained integral on the ice and off. Greene, a top-pairing defenseman, became captain before the 2015-16 season. Zajac now plays against the other team’s top line each night.

This is what Zajac and Greene not only imagined all of those years ago, but also came to expect. And when everyone else counted them out, it was the two longest-tenured players on the team who knew the Devils would make some noise in April.

“We went through a little downtime there but it makes this even sweeter,” Greene said. “We earned this on Day 1 here. Nobody really counted us in until this last couple weeks here and we still weren’t quite sure.”

The Devils can now be sure: They’re back in the postseason, thanks in large part to the leadership and the play of Greene and Zajac.

“It’s special. I think when you look at Travis and Andy, those guys have been here for a long time and they’ve had a taste of playoff success prior to us getting here,” Hynes said. “They were with us through the tough times. They worked, they were loyal, they bought in. They’ve always wanted to do the right things. It’s really nice to see high-character guys who care about the front of the jersey.

“Zajac and Greene, they are Devils and they’ve been Devils for a long time.”