BY JAY GREENBERG

The new video board over center ice at the Prudential Center weighs 8800 pounds, not as much as Claude Lemieux’s head, but theoretically that much more to hang over Nico Hischier. Yet, in all its 9500-square feet glory, that screen also is wide enough to show the big picture for a franchise that has not made the playoffs since reaching the finals in 2012.

Even after winning the lottery, the Devils are not acting . . . well, like they won a lottery, only that, they made a wise first choice in Hischier. It is a stance entirely consistent with a franchise that historically has had the lowest profile in the NHL, even in its contending years.

“It means a lot getting our choice of the player we want out of a good draft,” says GM Ray Shero. “Everybody knows it was not a Connor McDavid draft; we were the first to say that.

“Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Drouin, Seth Jones, those were all very good players in a similar draft (2013). And with all due respect to the rest of the (2017) players, Nico was the best one for our franchise. If we didn’t win the lottery, we weren’t going to get someone this good at sixth.”

This brings us quickly to the guy the Devils got at six when McDavid went first in 2015, a draft considered even deeper than the Devils sank a year ago to last place in the Eastern Conference. In his NHL debut season last year, Pavel Zacha managed eight goals, 16 assists and a seat in the press box for 10 games.

He looks a year older and stronger. “He’s been able to use his size, been more competitive on the puck,” said Coach John Hynes. “He can fend guys off and make plays, get possession to make an outlet pass, and his skating has been a factor, whether it is defending on the rush or driving to the net.”

Good to hear it. Better to see it in competition that is superior to the preseason variety, which will fool you more often that not. Otherwise, as long as Zacha breathes that invigorating Newark air, he will have to hear how the Devils, not exactly so far having assembled a blueline outline of the 1976-77 Canadiens, should have taken Ivan Provorov or Zach Werenski.

It is still early for those judgments, too soon to understand that these Devils owners have been extraordinarily patient with their other team, the 76ers, and will give Shero, entering his third year, a fair chance to follow his plan. Like everybody’s plan, it is to be strong up the middle.

Since there are very few true No. 1 centers–and certainly a dearth of them in the Metropolitan Division–you can win with a couple of 1As. Should, within two or three years, the Devils roll the lines with an 80-point Hischier followed by a 75-point Zacha, in front of the reliable, if currently unavailable, Travis Zajac, New Jersey should start to make sense as a contender again.

We’re just playing Devils advocate here. As Shero says, “It’s a lot of hard work to get out of last place” even if for the first two games of the season–routs of Colorado and Buffalo–Hynes’s team was making it look easy with guys you never heard of named Jesper Bratt, Stefan Noesen and Will Butcher.

Sure beats starting 1-3 with Devante Smith-Pelle. But in mid February 2017 the Devs were hanging around the race, only to win three of their final 24 games for a long list of reasons, including:

1) A bad season by a heretofore good goalie, Cory Schneider,

2) A defense where a good No.3, Andy Greene, has to be the No.1,

3) A disappointing trade of a good defenseman, Adam Larsson, for a mediocre Taylor Hall.

4) A general realization by the players that they were hopeless, except when playing the Flyers.

Shero spent some money for some offense from Marcus Johnasson, dumped Michael Cammalleri to no one’s regret, added some grit and smarts in Bryan Boyle, who hopefully can play through a leukemia diagnosis. And the Devils think their defense is better.

“Butcher, (Damon) Severson, (Mirco ) Mueller and Johnny Moore look like they can move the puck and get up in the play,” said Hynes. “They have some power play elements to them,

“Our skating is good, our defense against the line rush is better. The competitive level is higher.”

Schneider has decided to play deeper in his net and says the team is deeper in enthusiasm. That, of course, will have to include his own.

“My footwork is back to where it needed to be,” says the goalie. “It’s a new year, a new mindset. We have had a good injection of youth and enthusiasm.”

If this proves sustainable, we will see how soon the fans buy it. The market, where half the hockey fans in it are devoted to the Rangers, might be the toughest one in the NHL outside of the Islanders who have blown theirs up.

Fourteen years following the last Cup, and five seasons into a string of playoff absences, attendance for the opener-albeit against a bad draw like Colorado-was 2,000 below capacity. But as the team took a red carpet stroll for its devotees in the morning, it no longer had the feel of a perp walk. There was a lot of enthusiasm for Hischier, whom the Devils are not presenting to be a savior, but it sure would be great if he turned out to be one.

The kid wisely deflects all questions about his promise and its pressures by saying he is just here to help the team win. You sure Lou Lamoriello is gone? But in truth, his Devil championships were not built on an offensive star.

The greatest hero in franchise history was a goalie, Marty Brodeur–uh, why is he working for the Blues?–and the titles were built on a defense of the two great Scotts-Niedermayer and Stevens– plus airtight structure and depth of scoring.

The 2000 club, the most offensively loaded of the title ones, still did not have a player break more than a point-a-game. So if the hockey gods decided to give the Devils the top pick in a year without a superstar, they apparently were quite proud of their previous handiwork.

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