NHL Playoffs 2012: Florida Panthers vs. New Jersey Devils Stats and Intangibles

The third-seed Florida Panthers and the sixth-seed New Jersey Devils will face off on Friday night in Sunrise, Fla. in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference series—their first playoff meeting since 2000, when the Panthers last made the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Records

The Panthers went just 8-6-6 in March and April, and 2-3-5 in their last 10 outings. Their 38 total wins were the fewest of any playoff team this spring, and they also picked up points from 18 overtime/shootout losses.

They nearly fell from third to seventh in the conference, but managed to stay two points ahead of division rival Washington at season’s close.

Florida, which last made the postseason in 2000, when it was swept by eventual Cup champ New Jersey, gave up 24 more goals than it scored this season, although it was also one of the least-penalized clubs in the NHL at less than 10 penalty minutes per game.

The Devils went 7-2-1 in their final 10 regular-season games and won 24 games apiece both at home and on the road in 2011-12. Their 209 goals allowed was the third fewest in the Eastern Conference, and eighth among all playoff squads, although they only managed 228
goals themselves.

New Jersey attained the 100-point mark in the standings for the 13th time in franchise history, and for the third time in the last four seasons, although it hasn’t advanced to the second round of the playoffs since 2007, when it bested Tampa Bay before falling to Ottawa.

2010-11 Series 

Monday, Nov. 21: New Jersey 3 at Florida 4
Tuesday, Dec. 13: New Jersey 3 at Florida 2 (SO)
Friday, Jan. 6: Florida 2 at New Jersey 5
Saturday, Feb. 11: Florida 3 at New Jersey 1

All-Time Series 

Regular Season: 77 GP, Devils lead 45-23-9
Playoffs: 4 GP, Devils lead 4-0

Coaching

Devils coach Pete DeBoer got New Jersey back to the playoffs in his first season in Newark, and though he may not be looking for flat-out revenge against his old Florida club, it would have to be somewhat sweet for him to be the one to oust the Panthers in their return to postseason play.

He's got the Devils playing defensively, but it's not the trap of the 1990s and early 2000s that served them so well en route to three Stanley Cups in nine seasons.

They still struggle to score goals at times, but not because DeBoer's reining them in; and they do have some potent forwards up front in Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, Patrik Elias and David Clarkson.

DeBoer's also done a good job of spelling Martin Brodeur in net and giving Johan Hedberg some starts this year, which resulted in 17 wins and four shutouts by the "Moose," all of which were needed by New Jersey in the standings.

Former NHL forward Kevin Dineen has gotten the Panthers to the playoffs for the first time since Bill Clinton was winding down his tenure in the White House, and as the higher-seeded bench boss in this series, will get the last line change in four of the seven games, if it indeed goes that far.

He's also been selling his team as the underdog against the Devils, and that's not too far from the truth. The Panthers may have won their division, but they had nine less wins than New Jersey.

Despite Florida being a relatively new playoff team, though, Dineen has more than a few veterans with recent postseason experience, such as Mikael Samuelsson, Kris Versteeg, John Madden and Brian Campbell.

Versteeg, Madden and Campbell all raised the Cup with Chicago just two years ago, so they know what it entails to attain that feat. Look for Dineen to rely on all three of them at certain points in the series.

Special Teams

This series could definitely come down to the battle of power plays and penalty kills.

The Devils set a new NHL regular-season record this year by killing off 89.5 percent of their penalties, while also notching a league-high 15 shorthanded goals.

They will be tested by the Panthers' power-play unit, which was eighth in the league at 18.5 percent, scoring 53 goals in 286 attempts.

The New Jersey power play connected at just 17.2 percent during the year, with 46 goals in 267 tries, while Florida killed off just 79.5 percent of the infractions against it, allowing 49 power-play tallies in 239 opportunities. The Panthers scored just four shorthanded goals.

Florida also went 50.6 percent in the faceoff circle, while the Devils won just 47.1 percent of their draws.

Outlook

The Panthers racked up more than a few points this season by taking games to overtime, but there's no extra points awarded in the playoffs for getting to OT, and there won't be any more shootouts until September.

Ditto for the Devils, who led the league with 12 shootout victories this season.

Now, it's play until someone scores in sudden death, even if it takes an extra game to do it.

Look for the Devils to dispatch Florida in six hard-fought contests, with one or more games going to OT, with the Panthers scratching and clawing all the way to elimination.