Marty’s Better

…to push the panic button in NJ.  The Devils, while mathematically still in the race for the Wales Conference and Patrick Division titles are going to finish no better than fourth after losing to Pittsburgh at home tonight.  The Pens have two more wins than NJ and won the season series tonight4-3-1.  The Devils will not recover from this.  The rest of the NJ scenario after the jump.

The Rangers losing in OT tonight really sets up a huge game with the Devils on Thursday.  The only thing the Devils have going for them is they currently own the tiebreaker with the Rangers . New Jersey has 42 wins while the Ragners have 39.  Even if they beat the Devils on Thursday night and go 8-0 agianst them this year, the Devils will win the tiebreaker on by virtue of having one more win.  What is the NHL telling us here?  Winning against your division opponents is important, but not as important is just winning. 

Ottawa also won tonight.   They were losing 3-1 in Buffalo, but the Sabres collapsed and allowed 5 goals in the third period to lose 6-3.  That ties the Devils with Ottawa.  As the regular season is still going on, the Devils win the tiebreaker by virtue of less games played, but if all else is equal at the end of the year, the Devils will lose the tiebreaker to Ottawa.  The teams don’t play again, and the season series  goes to Ottawa because they have earned more points in the four games.  The Sens are 2-1-1, while the Devils are 2-2.  If the Devils wins had both come in regulation, we’d head to goal differential where the +9 Devils don’t matchup well with the +17 Senators.

There is, however, a light at the end of the tunnel, Devils fans.  First, I’d be crazy not to mention that in 2000, the Devils stumbled to the finish line.  I know, this team isn’t the 2000 Cup winner, but you never know what will happen in the playoffs.  The other light, is that they have a really good shot at getting Ottawa in round one.  The Senators would force the Devils to play a very physical series.  They’d have to play Devils hockey.  That could be just what they need.  They always need to play Devils hockey, but sometimes it seems like they forget.  Put into that equation the Senators problems in goal, and the Devils may be able to springboard themselves through a first round series. 

A few quick notes:

-The Caps won against Carolina tonight, but it came in the shootout.  I think Washington giving up a point tonight will probably seal the division for Carolina.   They have three less wins than the Canes, so it’d be tough to overcome at this point.

-Boston, it’s officially time to look behind you.  Objects in your mirror are closer than they appear, and Alex looks like he’s primed for his first trip to the postseason.   I say Boston’s out, Washington’s in.  It’d be great if they played one more time.  Could you imagine a first round series where the Habs and Caps, two teams that can score in bunches, just slugged it out like it was a June Yankees/Orioles game?

-Buffalo, by virtue of their collapse tonight, is most likely out. 

-Leave it to the Leafs to completely fall out of contention, work their way back up thus ruining chances at a good draft pick, and then putting up a stinker versus Boston at home tonight.  I feel like they went from picking in the top three to sitting somewhere around 10-14.  You can bank on them winning enough to jump all the way to 14.  They do stuff like that.  I enjoy it. 

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