Greene, Zajac happy to be back in playoffs with Devils

NEWARK, N.J. -- First came the high-five. Next came the embrace.
For defenseman Andy Greene and center Travis Zajac, the longest-tenured New Jersey Devils, this brief moment amid the on-ice celebration following a 2-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 5, the night they clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, was only for them.

"It was a little hug, a little smile," said Greene, New Jersey's captain, "and we just said, 'It's about time we're back.'"
The Devils are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2012, when they lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final. They have a big hill to climb after losing Games 1 and 2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round.
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Game 3 is here Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; CNBC, SN, TVAS2, MSG+, FS-F). It's the first home playoff game for the Devils since Game 5 of the Final on June 9, 2012.
"This is about the players this time of the year," Greene said
after New Jersey's 5-3 loss
at Tampa Bay on Saturday. "This is about us taking control of things and making sure we're in the right mindset, making sure we're ready to go, focused and ready for Monday."
Being focused and ready to play a home playoff game shouldn't be a problem for Greene and Zajac. They've been waiting for this for a long time.

Greene and Zajac, who came into the NHL together in 2006, are the only two players remaining from the Devils' team that went to that Cup Final six years ago.
Greene was 29 then and Zajac 27, having celebrated his birthday the day before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
They had already been to the playoffs five times in their six NHL seasons.
"We thought we were going to be in the playoffs every year," Greene said, "and then we missed five in a row."
Greene is now 35 and Zajac 32. They wear letters: Greene the "C" and Zajac an "A." They are arguably the Devils' two most important emotional leaders, even if they do it in different ways; Greene is more vocal, Zajac more reserved.
"There's a lot of guys that left the organization, but there's only a couple guys standing," former Devils goalie Martin Brodeur said. "For me, to watch Trav and Greenie be part of the new wave of what the New Jersey Devils are all about, completely different from what I experienced with [former general manager] Lou [Lamoriello] and the way we played the game, it's kind of nice. It's kind of nice that some guys from our era are still around and are getting back at it."
For the Devils of that era, getting to the playoffs was almost a given. Anything short of winning the Stanley Cup was a major disappointment.
"It always just felt like we were supposed to be there," Greene said.

It hasn't felt that way since 2012. The Devils changed around Greene and Zajac.
Zach Parise signed with the Minnesota Wild in on July 4, 2012. Ilya Kovalchuk left to play in Russia, and David Clarkson signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013. Brodeur left to sign with the St. Louis Blues and play seven more games before retiring in December 2014.
Lamoriello was replaced as GM by Ray Shero on May 4, 2015. Peter DeBoer, who was in his first season with the Devils when they reached the 2012 Final, was let go during the 2014-15 season; John Hynes was hired by Shero and is in his third season as coach.
Patrik Elias retired in 2016. Adam Henrique was traded to the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 30.
The Devils altered their style, from trap to attack. They went through hard times, the worst of which came in 2016-17, when they finished with 70 points, their lowest in a full season since they had 66 in 1988-89.
"At first, you're thinking to yourself, 'It's one rough year and we'll be back in,' but it doesn't work like that," Greene said. "We bottomed out here, but there's never been any doubt in Travis' mind or my head about where this team was going, where this organization was going. The whole process, we trusted it."
The key, Zajac said, was to re-establish the winning culture they were born into in New Jersey.
"We knew we were capable players to help this team get back there," Zajac said.
"You've got to go through some down times to really see what you're made of," he added. "We've done that and have passed those tests, so now we get the chance to play some meaningful hockey."
And now is when they have to think back to their playoff experiences, especially the run in 2012. They must remember what they did, how they handled themselves, what the grind, the pressure and the excitement were like.

Now is when those experiences matter.
"We believed in ourselves," Greene said. "For me and Trav, it's just going back to how we felt then. Don't change the way we're playing because the stakes are getting higher and every shift and every game means so much more. It's just believing in yourself, trusting what got you to this point and applying that to the team game.
"This is what you want to be doing. It's in our control."
It's about time.