The New Jersey Devils took on the Washington Capitals on Saturday night with an important two points on the line. The Devils and Capitals are expected to be the two teams fighting for playoff positioning at the end of the season, as they both rapidly improved their rosters in the offseason while also having young players coming into the lineup.
Washington took the first matchup of the season, beating New Jersey in October. The Devils got a win back on Thursday night, evening the season series. That put the rubber match on Saturday, giving a clear advantage to one of the two teams.
However, it wasn’t just any matchup. The Devils put a microscope on these two Capitals games because of a statement made by Sunny Mehta.
When the Devils announced that Connor Hellebuyck would not play in his return game against the Winnipeg Jets, the hockey world threw a fit. When Mehta blamed analytics and win probability, it became an even bigger deal. Everything surrounding their decision kept getting worse as more statements were released, a press conference happened, and the Devils lost to the Winnipeg Jets after a poor effort in the third period.
The New Jersey Devils proved the statement right
What many weren’t talking about in the statement was that the “win probability” aspect had nothing to do with Tuesday night's Jets game and everything to do with the two Capitals games right after it.
These games are immensely more important than a Jets game on the road. There are essentially eight points on the line: four points for the Devils if they win and removing the possibility of four points for the Capitals. The Devils received all of the points from the matchup, and they didn’t allow the Caps to move up the standings.
As of this writing, the Devils are in second place in the Metropolitan Division with 30 points. Keep in mind, the Devils have played three more games than the Capitals, but they own a 10-point advantage in the standings. The Capitals could win all of those games and still be two games behind New Jersey.
That eight-point swing is huge. If the Capitals won the last two games, they would be two points behind the Devils in the standings with those same three games in hand. It was a big week for the Devils, and the "statement' they made against the Caps shows the actual decision to sit Hellebuyck against the Jets was the right one.
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