Playoff Series Preview: Florida Panthers vs New Jersey Devils

#3 Florida Panthers Vs. #6 New Jersey Devils

Public opinion would consider the Devils to have won the lottery so to speak by being matched up with the Southeast Division winning Panthers. But is there more to this matchup than Florida’s goal differential and number of OTLs and other perceived shortcomings for the home team? Let us take a look

OFFENSE:

While Florida doesn’t have the biggest of stars for their forwards, their depth in scoring is what makes them formidable, especially on the PP with a 7th ranked PP at over 18%. A large reason of the improvement of the Panthers PP was the addition of Brian Campbell and the emergence of Jason Garrison Tomas Fleishmann, Stephen Weiss, and Kris Versteeg were a hot trio early on in the season and did cool a bit down the stretch but if they lead the charge and get a duplicate streak from Sean Bergenheim’s playoff run last spring with Tampa Bay it could provide the offensive punch needed to prevail in this series.

The Devils, on the otherhand, have quite a few big time scorers, even surprisingly 30 goals from David Clarkson to cap off a trio of 30 goal scorers with Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise. Solid performances from Petr Sykora and Alexei Ponikarovsky finding his best fit since being dealt from the Maple Leafs a few years ago just goes to show this isn’t the Devils if our youths any longer. With enough capable forwards at his disposal, Peter DeBoer will have the ability to mix and match his lines to get the best matchups even on the road in games 1 and 2.

Advantage: New Jersey Devils

DEFENSE:

The mix of experience and youth on the Florida blueline has served them well for this season setting them up for the future. Now the veterans on defense will be charged with keeping a potentially nervous bunch inside their own skin for the first playoffs in 12 years for the Panthers. With a mix of some offensive defensemen like Campbell and Garrison, more stay at home types like Mike Weaver and Ed Jovanowski, and the physical youngster Eric Gudbranson, proper matchups will be the key for a team with a -24 goal differential this season.

For as unassuming as the defensemen for the Devils can be, they have yielded the 3rd least goals against in all of the Eastern Conference and 8th in the whole league. Depth was tested with the loss of Henrik Tallinder to a blood clot and an up and down rookie campaign from Adam Larsson. Everyone has a role and appears to play it well. The physicality comes from Anton Volchenkov, the addition of Marek Zidlicky adds an offensive stability especially to the PP, and Mark Fayne has had a very strong sophomore season increasing in virtually every statistical category. The PK is scary with 15 SH goals this season and will need to be up to the task against the Panthers Power Play.

Advantage: New Jersey Devils

GOALTENDING: 

While not exactly his prior Hart form, Jose Theodore arguably had one of his finer seasons since his 2002 run. But backup Scott Clemensen also had a fine year and was more than just a serviceable backup posting some key wins for the Panthers. While I don’t expect Kevin Dineen to have Theodore on a short leash, if the need arises, he should feel comfortable making a change if need be.

In New Jersey, while backup Johan Hedberg got plenty of playing time, it’s expected that Brodeur will be the be all and end all in the Devils net. Brodeur will look to get himself and the Devils out of the first round for the first time since 2006-07 and will need 19 starts to reach 200 postseason games in his storied HOF career.

Advantage: New Jersey Devils

SERIES PREDICTION:

New Jersey Wins Series In 6 Games

Ignore the rationale of all the ‘loser’ points that got the Panthers in the playoffs and their -24 goal differential. This series is going to be played close. While having 11 SOLs is reason for skeptics to automatically eliminate the Cats, I see it as that they are tough to beat in 60 or 65 minutes, giving them actually hope to win games in the extended OT formats in the playoffs. Special teams could easily be the tale of who wins this series. I see home and home splits the first four games with the winner of game 5 taking the series in six.  I see the Devils taking game five and withstanding a furious effort from the Cats in game 6 to move on to the second round.