One of the marks of a good team is that they are able to win consistently and continually. The mark of a bad team is that they cannot sustain success, and to go along with that, they have trouble emerging from failure. During the half decade the New Jersey Devils were out of the playoff picture, they largely had trouble producing winning streaks. This suppressed their total points throughout each season, leaving them on the outside looking in come playoff time.
Last year, however, the Devils were much improved in the winning streak category. Comparing two years ago, when NJ ended up with 70 points, versus last year, when they ended up with 97, you will see that all of those 27 extra points were gained thanks to longer and more winning streaks.