New Jersey Devils: How Many Points Get Team To Playoffs

The New Jersey Devils are holding onto their playoff spot with a crazy schedule coming up. How many points will they need to end the season in a playoff spot.

The New Jersey Devils currently sit in the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been sitting in a playoff spot since their first game of the season. Being this good for the whole season has changed the expectations from rebuilding year to playoffs or bust.

However, with some inconsistent play since the New Year, some worry if the Devils can hold on to their spot during the final month of the season. So that bears the question, how many points do the Devils need to make it to the postseason?

The Devils have 15 games left before the end of the regular season. 11 of those games come against teams currently in a playoff position. This is obviously one of the hardest stretches of the Devils season, and it comes at the end.

The teams the Devils are fighting off have fairly easy schedules to end the season. The Columbus Blue Jackets play just six playoff teams to finish off the season. The Florida Panthers face just seven teams currently in a playoff position. While the other teams still have a shot, let’s focus on these two teams for argument’s sake.

The Devils currently have three points on the Blue Jackets and five points on the Panthers.

Let’s say the Panthers win every single game they should, and lose to all the teams with more points then them. That would give them an 11-7 record, but with how they came back against the Lightning they will probably get a few more points. So let’s give them their best case scenario as 11-5-2 to end the season. That would be a ridiculous run, but it could easily happen.

That would give the Panthers 95 points to end the season. That was the point total last year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who won the last Wild Card spot. That’s conceivable as the necessary points this year as well.

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The Blue Jackets could also win all the games they’re supposed to, especially since they went through their own torrid stretch, playing just one non-playoff team in February and still sit in a playoff spot. The Jackets could easily go 9-5-1 to end the season. That would place them at 92 points.

That means the Devils need to at least get to 93 points to give themselves a very good chance at making the playoffs. The Devils need 17 points in the final 15 games. That seems very doable on paper, but with the schedule in front of them every game is of increasing importance.

This team needs to go either 8-6-1 or something better than that to have the best possible chance to make the playoffs. With only four games left against non-playoff teams, that means the Devils need to go at least 4-6-1 against the playoff teams. It all starts tonight against Winnipeg. It can easily happen, but at the same time it can be easily thrown away.