Are the Devils a serious contender for the Cup this season?

I was pretty confident to start the season that they’d be a bubble team but ultimately make the playoffs, and my feelings haven’t much changed since then.

They’re currently playing and seeded better than I expected them to, but there’s time yet. Their remaining schedule isn’t exactly easy—3 vs. Rags, 1 vs. Boston, 2 vs. Philly, 2 vs. Pittsburgh, 2 vs. Ottawa, 2 vs. Toronto, 1 vs. Washington, 2 vs. TBL, 4 vs. NYI (which, due to a quirk of the schedule, NJ plays them three times in 6 days. They’re consecutive for the Isles, but part of a 4 game set for NJ with a Rags game squeezed between the 1st and 3rd), 1 vs. Carolina and 4 against the West which includes Colorado, Vancouver, Chicago and, oh yeah, at Detroit where apparently no one else is allowed to win.

As good as it feels that they’re in 4th now, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they slipped back a few spots by game 82.

To answer the original question though, no, I don’t feel they’re contenders. Anything could happen and if Marty keeps playing like he has been then that could go a long way toward proving me wrong, but by my estimate they’d do very well just to make it to the second round.

But not until they get their defense stabilized.

Tallinder & Larsson. Once their bodies recover. Let’s hope the break has sharpened their minds. The Devils haven’t suffered while they were gone, so that’s good. Foster, Taormina, & Harrold. Young guys who’ll get more shifts until T & L return. We’ll need more than one of them to be on-point for the playoffs.

D-man trades. It doesn’t look like Marek Zidlicky is a factor anymore. Still, I’m anxious to see what Lou will do in the next week. If not Zidlicky or someone like him, maybe another big dude? I’d be content with that.

Second issue: to win the Cup you need 82 regular season games + 16 to 28 playoff games. That’s 98-110 total. Can Brodeur-Hedberg handle that, especially since Marty has been carrying most of the load lately?

If we bring back another a cup, this is what my face will be like:

Sure it’s been a fun past 15 games but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If the devils make the second round I’d say anything can happen, but I still think if they made the second round this year that’d be a nice achievement for them.

Marty’s going to have to play great and i’m still not sold on his “turn back the clock” type of two weeks he’s been having.

stanley cup champions. guaranteed. i’ve been saying it since preseason. don’t know which year, but we are set up roster-wise for 2 shots at #4 for marty(he will re-sign for at least 1 more year).

without a single move, fully healthy(larsson, tallinder, zajac), we can ice forward lines such as: parise-henrique-kovy, elias-zajac-sykora, ponikarovsky-zubrus-clarkson, bernier-josefson-palmieri. just for example. firepower-yes.

defensively: salvador-volchenkov, tallinder-fayne, larsson-taormina. ok, greene. no foster, though. defense/talent-yes.

in net: shame on you doubters, marty will get another one if it kills him. hedberg is an excellent backup. best tandem in the league, and battle-tested. look at philly.

you may start celebrating now, but it may be 1 year early(early’s ok!). we may need another season for this center situation to settle in nicely(zajac-henrique-josefson-carter?), and wingers can become wingers again. this defense for the playoffs will be excellent, if healthy. might need to add 1 here. that’s all, folks…

Agreed with Alan that it’s match-ups. Ottawa would be ideal. Pittsburgh I’d take second. If we draw Philly, I actually think we can beat the Flyers as they’re playing now, but think it will be exhausting enough to leave us toast for the 2nd Round.

As for Florida, I’m still not sold that DeBoer can vex his Panther demons.

The Panthers have been tough on the Devils. All team has to do is cover the Veersteeg line and they don’t do that well at it. At all.

Versteeg 5 G 1A
Weiss 1 G 4A
Fleischimann 1 G 1 A

Should be easy to coach against, but may this emphasizes that a shadow type of player could be a cheap rental come deadline time.

…a dark horse team. It really comes down to goaltending. If Marty can keep his play up close to a .910-.920, then we can definitely get a round or two. The defense isn’t nearly as bad as some make it out to be, but one more solid member would solidify the top 6 and allow Foster/Tao to be played as a 7th D/4th liner/PP specialist, which would be great. The forwards are pretty much set once everyone comes back, but I would love to pick up a big body who could play the pk and give us 10 competent mins a night.

Our lineup, as currently constructed, looks like this when healthy (PLEASE disregard lines, this is just to get the names out);

Parise-Henrique-Kovy
Sykora-Elias-Clarky
Poni-Zajac-Zubrus (he can play all 3 forward positions)
Carter-JJ-Bernier
Ex; Bolton/Janssen

Salvador-Android
Fayne-Tallinder
Greene-Larsson
Foster/Tao

Not that bad. Personally, just a decent to good defenseman that can make a good pass (not even put up points), who’s big, and who could give us 15 mins a night along with maybe a veteran 3rd, 4th liner and we could surprise some people.

Definitely a dark horse team this year and I do think we win our first round matchup. If Parise signs long term and we build up the defense, then I think we could be solid contenders soon enough…

parise, kovy, elias-can’t beat that trio. we will re-sign parise to keep it together until elias skates off in the sunset. on andy greene, i don’t like him. not a lick. i should make a post of it, but opinions differ. i will take our goaltenders over any in the league-add up the playoff success and cups. consistent, proven, and ready NOW.

the rangers, whoever? if you’re worried about the opposing goaltender, we can score on anyone, anyway. best forward group in a long time, and deep. where exactly are the major holes in this team? oh, and we’re a little motivated after: missing the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, the kovy bs from the league, and the media perception that this team(and marty) are done. ridiculous, i say

However in order to make a deep run they have to be more consistent