The New Jersey Devils were just ranked 10th in the Eastern Conference in the latest point projections. It shows that projections are not believing the Devils did enough to make the playoffs this season.
It’s that time of the year when we are going to overreact to every single prediction, but what would the internet be without overreation? Well, it sounds pretty nice actually. Anyway, the first points prediction is out for the NHL this season, and it doesn’t look good for Jersey’s Team.
It’s not like the Devils were predicted to make the playoffs last season. The most popular point predictor had the Devils ranked 7th in the Metropolitan Division. We all know how that turned out. In fact, they were tied for last with the Philadelphia Flyers, who also ended up making the playoffs. And this predictor we’re talking about today? They had the Devils at 77 points!
So maybe it shows how pointless preseason predictions are, but fans always want to see them. Also, this predictor had the Washington Capitals as the best team, and they won the Stanley Cup.
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Honestly, the current predictions don’t have the Devils in that bad a position. However, we all have to hope it goes a little better. This prediction, which claims to play out the season 10,000 times with a variety of outcomes, has the Devils with 92 points. This has the team hitting 98 points in their best season and 84 points at their worst.
While this doesn’t look good for the Devils, and show’s the team will regress, this isn’t anything to be worried about. Computer models don’t factor in Nico Hischier making a jump. It doesn’t factor in a healthy Cory Schneider (not a guarantee, but still). Then, it has difficulty figuring out how the young players will work in this lineup. There’s so many factors, that it isn’t a big problem.
Expect a lot of analysts and experts to pick the Devils as a regression candidate. When a writer has to cover every team in the league, they aren’t going to know the prospects on every team. So since the Devils didn’t sign James Van Riemsdyk or Calvin De Haan, analysts will say the team will be worse than last year.
This is the first point predictor I’ve seen. We will see a thousand more from various sites, including possibly this one. The Devils could honestly be on the playoff bubble like this is predicting, but it would mean everything has to work out in Florida, Columbus and Carolina. We’ve seen how that might work out in the past. We will continue to react to point predictors, but the first one may be one to wait on.