Bold words from The Big Shot.
“If we play our best, nobody can beat us,” Ilya Kovalchuk told The Post as the Devils head into the playoffs.
The Devils have done nothing but lose in the playoffs in their last three trips, not even qualifying last year. They’ll open their 21st playoffs by visiting the Panthers on Friday.
“Now the fun begins. This is why we play hockey,” Kovalchuk said.
The Devils will lean heavily on their stars to overwhelm the pesky Panthers, and Kovalchuk, their leading scorer the past two seasons, says he has some proving to do.
“I wasn’t successful at all during my career. It’s not enough for me,” Kovalchuk said. “Everybody wants to be a winner.”
Kovalchuk led the Devils at 2-4-6 in five games in his only playoffs appearance with New Jersey in 2010, a five-game loss to the Flyers. The single game victory was the first-ever in his Stanley Cup career of nine games (3-5-8). He finished 37-46-83 this season, tops in goals and points among the Devils.
The common thread for the teams is the Devils’ coach, the one who brought them back to the Stanley Cup tournament, fired by their looming foe after failing to bring the Panthers to playoffs in three tries.
Pete DeBoer coached the Devils to 102 points this season, 21 more than they managed in missing for the first time in 14 seasons last year. Under rookie Kevin Dineen, the Panthers improved 22 points from the 72 they managed under DeBoer last season, and ended their NHL record 10-season playoff absence.
Panthers general manager Dale Tallon, in his second season at the Florida helm after his success with Chicago, says DeBoer was a housecleaning victim.
“It had nothing to do with his coaching. I wanted my own guy, someone I brought in. Simple as that,” Tallon told The Post yesterday. “I like Pete. He’s a good coach, a good person.
“But I wanted to put my stamp on the team.”
Tallon’s stamp was more TNT than glued paper. He brought in defenseman Brian Campbell, goalie Jose Theodore, defenseman Ed Jovanovski and forwards Marcel Goc, Scottie Upshall, Tomas Fleischmann, Sean Bergenheim, Kris Versteeg and Matt Bradley in a 48-hour span July 1-2.
“We were changing the culture and brought in guys from winning organizations,” Tallon said. “Guys like Ed Jovanovski keep the young guys on the straight and narrow, and make sure they understand what it takes.
“We have a lot of playoff experience on the roster from other teams. It’s a good, solid team. We’ve had solid play from both goaltenders. And the defense contributes offensively. Most of the offense starts there.
“We’re not a highly-skilled team, but we do have some.”
With such wholesale change, quick cohesion was a worry. “We had a really good training camp, and spent almost all of our time in Florida. A lot of guys came in early,” Tallon said. “I thought we would struggle early but we had a solid start. A couple of moves and we were able to get there and stay there. We didn’t have any real lows.”
“It starts with the coaching and the character of the players and their willingness to buy into what he wanted to do,” Tallon said.
They survived a 2-3-5 “low” to win their finale and capture their first Southeast title Saturday. The hallmarks of their season were their league-most 25 trips to overtime, and their refusal to fold when it appeared they’d finally collapse.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games, so we’re used to playing them. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but that’s how playoffs often are,” Tallon said.
The Panthers would be the nominal underdogs in the series that doesn’t open until Friday, finishing eight points behind New Jersey, except that they won the season series 2-1-1 and have home-ice advantage. They’ve surprised all season, just enough, and underestimating them has been the path of defeat.Yikes, the Devils are 10-24 on the road since the start of the 2002 playoffs. … The Devils were the Panthers’ last playoff foe, sweeping them to launch their 2000 Cup run. … The Devils haven’t opened on the road since losing in six to Carolina in the second round in 2006. … The Devils’ last series victory as the road team came in 2003 semifinals against Ottawa, sending them to their third Cup.