New Jersey Devils: Analyzing the Road to the Stanley Cup

With a 5-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, the New Jersey Devils clinched a trip to the 2012 NHL playoffs.

New Jersey's 45-28-6 record is a huge turnaround from the 2010-2011 campaign, where the Devils missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade. With a week left in the regular season, the Devils will likely be locked into the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, where they will play the third seed.

If the playoffs started today, New Jersey would find themselves facing the winner of the Southeast Division, which right now would be the Florida Panthers. However, the Washington Capitals are just two points behind Florida and hold the tiebreaker with five more regulation wings.

Many fans believe that the sixth seed is the comfort zone for the first round of the playoffs, as the teams in the Southeast have failed to find consistency until late in the season. However, if the Devils draw one of these teams in the first round, it may not be a walk in the park.

Despite just 37 wins this season, the Panthers have given the Devils a hard time during the 2011-2012 campaign. The two teams split the four games they played this year, and New Jersey blew a three-goal lead in the third period to lose 4-3 on November 21st. Most recently, the Devils suffered a 3-1 loss at home to the Panthers on February 11th.

The Capitals, meanwhile, have suffered through a disappointing season, as they have failed to find consistency and have struggled to beat key teams in the playoff hunt. However, Alex Ovechkin has finally found his game late in the year and has his team in position to take the division lead late in the season.

The Devils won the season series 3-1 against Washington, including a 5-0 victory last month, but they have also struggled to close out games against the Capitals, including a 4-3 shootout win in December in which they led 3-0.

Granted, whichever team wins the third seed will not be as intimidating in the first round as, say, the Pittsburgh Penguins or Boston Bruins, but fans should not consider this a walk in the park. The Devils have only won two series in their history when starting the first round as a road team, and there are no definite wins in the playoffs.

With three games left, the Devils could fall to the No. 7 seed depending on the play of the Ottawa Senators. But with the way New Jersey has been playing, it is doubtful this will happen. If they clinch the sixth seed, New Jersey will have a favorable, but not guaranteed, chance to move on to the second round.