NEWARK Youth Yannick Ngakoue Jersey , N.J. (AP) The worst season in nearly three decades is just a recent memory, and so is the five-year drought.The New Jersey Devils are back in the playoffs, and again in the hunt for the Stanley Cup. It’s like old times.The Devils completed a remarkable comeback season by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 on Thursday night to clinch their first postseason berth since making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012.It capped an offseason and regular season that saw general manager Ray Shero reshape half his 25-man roster through free agency, the draft and trades and have John Hynes make all the right moves to keep his team in a playoff position every day of the season.Not bad for a club that won 28 games and finished last in the Eastern Conference in 2016-17.”This is the best, the best,” said veteran defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016. ”My first stint in Pittsburgh and Anaheim and then again in Pittsburgh, I never appreciated what baseball players did. I thought it was stupid when they would come in and have champagne when they made the playoffs. I get it now. Making the playoffs is hard.”The Devils can point to so many players in bouncing back from their worst season since 1988-89. Taylor Hall (39 goals, 54 assists) had a career year that teammates feel merits the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. Top draft pick Nico Hischier overcame a slow start to have 19 goals and 51 points. Free agent Will Butcher set a team record for rookie defensemen with 44 points.The unsung hero was goaltender Keith Kinkaid http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/yannick-ngakoue-jersey-cheap , who stepped for an injured Cory Schneider and carried the team over the final 10 weeks, going 10-1-1 in the last 12 games and helping the New York-metropolitan area avoid being shut out of the postseason for the first time since the Devils took up residence in New Jersey in 1982. The Rangers and Islanders will miss the postseason.”It’s fun, but playoffs are a new breed,” said Kinkaid, who re-signed with the team in the offseason despite being an unrestricted free agent.There are only two players left from the Devils’ 2011-12 team: defenseman and captain Andy Greene, and Travis Zajac, who centers the line Hynes’ uses against the opponent’s top line.While there have been lean years, Zajac said the Devils rediscovered themselves this season. They practiced and played hard, and made sure opponents knew they were in for a battle every game.The results have been a 44-28-9 record that includes a 25-8-9 mark in one-goal games. It was a record that reminded many of the old Devils Authentic Patrick Mahomes Jersey , a franchise that made the playoffs 20 of 22 times and won three Cups between 1989-90 and 2011-12.This group, however, skates faster and is relentless.Last year, the Devils were disappointing underachievers. Their biggest sin was failing to compete every night. And they paid the price, especially down the stretch when they went 3-17-4.Hynes and Shero changed that. It started with the roster makeover that included the signing of veteran Brian Boyle, and an attitude readjustment.”It’s a different skill set and youth,” said Shero, who also strengthened the team during the season by acquiring defenseman Sami Vatanen and forwards Michael Grabner and Patrick Maroon in trades. ”But they had to fight, they clawed and scraped to get what they’ve got and they’ve earned it.”With a game to play http://www.kansascitychiefsteamonline.com/patrick-mahomes-ii-jersey , the Devils won’t learn their first-round opponent until Saturday at the earliest. They are the top wild-card team in the Eastern Conference, and they will at least stay there if they win at Washington on Saturday night. They also could go up or down depending on what Columbus, Philadelphia, Florida and Pittsburgh do.It really doesn’t matter. The Devils are just looking forward to the postseason.”You go into this year thinking it’s going to be a bigger challenge,” said Boyle, who provided inspiration by overcoming cancer early in the season. ”Plenty of people were writing us off. It makes it pretty sweet to clinch. I have just tried to tell everyone: `It’s going to be so much fun. You have never played hockey this fun in your life until you play playoff hockey.”’— PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are the top line in Colorado — and right now, the NHL.Rantanen had two goals, Matt Nieto and Landeskog also scored Authentic Derwin James Jersey , and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Monday night.The Avalanche continued their early-season hot streak and finished 3-0-1 on their four-game road trip.“We know that we have to be better than we were last year on the road. It’s a focus of ours,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We don’t feel like there’s any reason we can’t play the way we do at home out on the road, even though there’s some tougher circumstances.”They’ll be fine if the top line keeps producing like this. Landeskog had a hat trick on the trip against New Jersey and clinched this one with his eighth goal of the season early in the third period.“I’ve had a lot of fun in the NHL but no doubt we’re getting some production and we’re playing well and creating a lot of chances,” Landeskog said.Semyon Varlamov was solid in net and stopped 37 shots.The Flyers continued to push their rookie mascot Gritty, giving out T-shirts and running fun facts (“Gritty has been known to use the express lane at the grocery story even when he buys more than 15 items”) on the big screen of the furry fan favorite. But the frivolity can’t mask the problems for a Flyers’ team that suffered its third home loss of the season and continued to struggle in the defensive zone.“I think it took us getting down to come to life there and I think, especially in our home building, we got to come on strong and we got to sync more,” Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim said.Rantanen needed only 3:23 to beat Brian Elliott for his third goal of the season and the quick lead. MacKinnon set up Rantanen for the power-play score, and they became the first players in franchise history with concurrent nine-game point streaks to start the season.Nieto was left open on the left side to score his first goal of the season in the second.Flyers captain Claude Giroux lost the puck in the offensive zone and Landeskog capitalized with a breakaway goal for a 3-0 lead.The fans chanted for Gritty.The best they got was a slapper from Nolan Patrick to cut it to 3-1.“You see the way we play when we get down http://www.sandiegochargersteamonline.com/derwin-james-jersey , we dominate the game,” Patrick said. “That’s kind of something we need to do for a full 60 minutes. We can’t just wait until we’re down to start making a push like that. We’re capable of so much more.”The Avalanche continued to get production from perhaps the best top line in the NHL. MacKinnon has a goal in seven of nine games, and his eight even-strength goals lead the NHL. Rantanen is in the top-five in scoring, and Landeskog has been a dominant goal scorer.Rantanen added an unassisted empty-netter in the final 90 seconds to squash any thought of a Flyers’ comeback.He put up almost 90 points last year and he’s off to a good start this year and it seems like he’s still not getting the recognition he deserves,” Landeskog said. “That’s fine with us, we’ll take that. He’s going to be stud in this league for a long time.”NOTES: Flyers F Michael Raffl left with an unspecified lower-body injury. … Flyers D Shayne Gostisbehere seemed in pain and was down on the ice for a bit after a collision in the third with Landeskog. … Joe Sakic and Anton Stastny each had a point in eight straight games to open the 1988-89 season when the franchise was still in Quebec. … The Flyers have yet to win consecutive games this season. … Landeskog was named the NHL first star of the week. … The Avalanche blocked 22 shots.UP NEXTAvalanche: Return home Wednesday to play Tampa Bay.Flyers: Thursday at Boston.