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Devils Fan Defying the Odds in NHL Bracket Challenge
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- Devils Fan Defying the Odds in NHL Bracket Challenge
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
While the New Jersey Devils are watching the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs from home, one of their most passionate supporters still has something to play for.
Josh Langer, a Devils season-ticket holder and the voice behind one of the biggest Devils fan accounts on Instagram, @devils.fanpage , sits second place overall out of more than 616,000 entries in the NHL’s official ‘Bracket Challenge’.
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He’s correctly guessed the outcome of all 12 playoff series’ so far — and nailed the exact number of games for every series except three.
The odds of doing that well to this point? Approximately one in 200,000.
All that’s left to complete perfection is the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes meeting in the Stanley Cup Finals, with the Avs winning it all. Per NHL.com, both of those teams are the “overwhelming favorites” to advance in their respective series’.
The first-place bracket, belonging to user “Galastorn”, has predicted the same finals outcome. But the total number of finals goals scored could become a potential tiebreaker; Langer predicted 35, while Galastorn says 33.
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If Langer is able to jump the first place bracket and win it all, he’ll win an all expenses paid trip to any NHL event plus a Limited Edition watch from Norqain worth over $10,000. Not bad.
Even if he’s unable to, he’ll still have a boatload of prizes to look forward to from the individual groups he’s entered, which Langer says he’s, “all but guaranteed to win at this rate.”
It took him only five minutes to make the bracket.
“I’m a big enough hockey fan and follow enough regular season action to just make my picks off the dome when looking at the bracket for the first time,” Langer explained. “And from there I think I have a good chance right off the bat.”
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One call he’s especially proud of? Picking the Anaheim Ducks to upset the Edmonton Oilers in the first round:
“It feels like Edmonton’s window is slowly closing without proper goaltending, meanwhile Anaheim’s is opening with the young star talent,” he said. “The only way I would have went differently was based off playoff experience, but I went with Anaheim anyways.”
Many of his 51,600+ followers on Instagram have rallied behind his push for first place.
“The way the internet is these days, you’d probably expect some trash talk with anything I post,” he laughed, “but I’m not sure I’ve seen much, if any, of that floating around under my bracket success posts. It’s been mainly fun, positive words and most importantly shock.”
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The Devils’ two most recent playoff eliminations have come at the hands of the Hurricanes. Naturally, that’s been eating at him.
“I’ve been a Devils fan since birth,” Josh told me. “I was 8 days old when they won their third title in 2003, so I was instantly born into it from my dad and it’s been in my life forever.”
Nonetheless, the Hurricanes’ success against Jersey’s team hasn’t stopped him from being objective when it counts. In fact, he says the opposite is true.
“My Devils fandom is put aside when filling out a bracket. All biases are aside and I choose my picks based off how that team performed in my mind that season … choosing Carolina to go all the way to the finals this year, I wouldn’t be doing that if my Devils fandom got in the way.”
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Langer has filled out an NHL bracket every year since around 2018 or 2019 — it’s a tradition he, his family, and his friends look forward to, much like many people during March Madness.
Of course, as a Devils fan, watching the Eastern Conference Finals will be a little strange for him.
“I won’t be rooting for Carolina but I won’t be nearly as angry this year if they did win the ECF compared to a year where I didn’t have a perfect bracket,” he said. “If Montreal wins, great. I won’t be upset because I’d love to see them in the finals. If Carolina wins, also great, because that’s good news for my bracket.”
If it all comes together and he wins the whole challenge?
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“Yeah I mean that’d be great, right?” Josh said with a big grin.
For a guy who has been going to games since he was a kid and now runs one of the biggest Devils communities online, a national bracket title would be the ultimate silver lining following a disappointing Devils season.
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