With the Flyers victory over the Buffalo Sabres last night, the Devils have officially been locked in as the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference meaning they will avoid the NY Rangers and the Boston Bruins in Round 1 and will instead face the winner of the Southeast division. That will all be determined tomorrow night when either the Washington Capitals or the Florida Panthers could win the division. The Devils are 3-1 against Washington this season and 2-2 against Florida. Both teams would be tough opponents for Devils, but coach Peter DeBoer would love to face his former Florida Panthers team and win a playoff series against them. However, Washington might be more ideal with their goaltending uncertainty, but they could be very dangerous due to their expectations in the playoffs.
The Devils have not won a playoff series since 2007, when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning coached by current Rangers coach John Tortorella in 6 games. They have also not advanced past Round 2 since 2003, when they won the Stanley Cup. So, the Devils expectations could for now be to at least go past Round 2, but this team obviously has bigger goals. The Devils will open up sometime next week in Florida or Washington on Wednesday or Thursday or maybe even as late as Friday.
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