The New Jersey Devils can win it all. It’s not impossible.
The New Jersey Devils are about as far as unlikely as any team in the league when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup. According to Fanduel, the Devils are +6000 to win the Stanley Cup. (For those non-bettors, that means someone who bets $100 on the Devils to win the Stanley Cup, they get $6,000). Just to win the extremely tough East Division, the Devils are 16/1.
To say it’s unlikely that the Devils win the Stanley Cup is like saying it’s unlikely one of us is going to date Ariana Grande. I mean, I guess it’s possible, but a nearly impossible set of circumstances all have to come together for it to happen.
The motivation for this piece came from Editor In Leaf, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ FanSided blog. They wrote today that the Buffalo Sabres could meet them in the Stanley Cup Finals. We don’t have time to unpack all that, but since everyone is taking crazy pills today, we figured why not join the party.
The Devils have a nice, young core that is as talented as any. If you take the upside of any organization right now, the Devils have to be in the top five. So, theoretically, they should have a shot at the title if everything goes right. Right?
Listen, everything has to go right. EVERYTHING. Neary a fault for 56 games of the season and an entire four-series playoff run. It has to be perfect. They can’t blow a game, a period, even a simple play going wrong can knock them off course. That’s how delicate the Devils’ chances are to make any kind of run, let alone the magic it needs to make the Stanley Cup Finals and win. Still, it could happen.