Devils coach on elimination test: ‘We gotta learn through winning’

The Devils have made plenty of strides in recent weeks with their return to the Stanley Cup playoffs after a five-year hiatus, but they’re not ready for the run to end.

As the team prepared for an elimination Game 5 in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday, coach John Hynes served a reminder that the Devils aren’t happy to just be along for the ride while picking up some experience for next year.

“You don’t want to always have to learn through losing. We gotta learn through winning,” Hynes said Friday after practice. “The more experience we can get, the more we can push this series. It’s going to be good for us, for our organization and our players, but we’re not here just to play in one playoff series and say we learned a lesson. We want to win.”

In order to bring the series back to New Jersey, the Devils will have to get their first win this postseason Amalie Arena. The Lightning, leading the series 3-1, won the first two games there by a combined score of 10-5.

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Hynes said that he thought his team was “a little bit nervous” in the new playoff atmosphere early in Game 1, but they have since shaken those nerves without the end results to show for it.

“If you look at a lot of the games, they were one-goal games, tight either way — whether we won or the games that they won,” Hynes said. “I think we’re right there.”

While Hynes was still considering lineup changes, one major factor will be the availability of Sami Vatanen. The top defenseman was knocked out of Game 4 after getting hit by Nikita Kucherov, which did not result in any fine or suspension.

Vatanen, who has what the team termed an upper-body injury, did not travel with the Devils to Tampa, though they are still leaving the door open for him to join them if he’s cleared in time.

On the other side, former Ranger Ryan Callahan skated for the Lightning at Friday’s practice after leaving Game 2 with an upper-body injury and missing the next two games.

“He’s progressing, so we’ll re-evaluate him and see how he’s doing [Saturday],” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “He’s definitely a game-time decision.”