Can we catch Ottawa?

As of 12/24/07, we are 7 points behind Ottawa.

I noticed we (as fans) are more focused on the teams behind us in the standings, rather than the team in front. I hope this is not the case for our boys in red, black, and white, as we should be gunning for Ottawa's top spot.

They have embarrassed us quite a bit this season (and in the last post-season). And I am hoping we will catch them in the standing and figure out how to start beating them when we face them.

I watched them play today against the Ragamuffins, and while they were pretty dominant in some instances, they did not impress much. They have experience as a cohesive unit, and a fine-tuned system. But they are beatable.

Last year, we came close to toppling the Sabies off their perch at the top. Damned close (I think within 2 pts). We ended our season series with them 2-2...

So this year (2008), In addition to our ever-present expectations and goal of the Stanley Cup, I hope the Devils strive and work to be #1 in the East.

Anything can happen. I just want consistant winning hockey. Just win and the it all falls into place.

who knows, to be honest

if someone would have told me a month and a half ago that we would be leading the atlantic by 5 points at christmas, i would not have believed them

who knows, to be honest

if someone would have told me a month and a half ago that we would be leading the atlantic by 5 points at christmas, i would not have believed them
Same here. I am more than happy about how this team has come together under Sutter. They just have to keep it going.

If we play the way we have in the last 15 games (for the most part), we'll catch them.

I agree. I just want the wins to keep on coming on a regular basis. I'm more worried about keeping our lead in our division rather than catching the Sens...

the only thing i can say is, if Ottawa loses a lot more we could, realistically. But I just don't think we're consistent enough of a team right now to gain those 7.

I don't know if the Devs can catch the Sens, but you can't base your judgment of the Sens off of one game.

I don't know if the Devs can catch the Sens, but you can't base your judgment of the Sens off of one game.

Yeah. I also based my judgment on the fact that the Sens jersey/logo is pretty bad. :)

I hope the Devils are focused on catching who's ahead of them too. If the Rangers had won yesterday like I had hoped the standings would look as such:

1) Ottawa - 48
2) New Jersey - 43
3) Carolina - 41
4) Boston - 40
5) NYR - 40
6) Montreal - 40
7) Buffalo - 39
8) Pittsburgh - 38
9) Atlanta - 37
10) Florida - 37
11) Toronto - 37
12) NYI - 36
13) Philadelphia - 36
14) Tampa Bay - 33
15) Washington - 30

Right now its

1) Ottawa - 50
2) New Jersey - 43
3) Carolina - 41
4) Boston - 40
5) Montreal - 40
6) Buffalo - 39
7) Pittsburgh - 38
8) NYR - 38
9) Atlanta - 37
10) Florida - 37
11) Toronto - 37
12) NYI - 36
13) Philadelphia - 36
14) Tampa Bay - 33
15) Washington - 30

Although I do love seeing the Rangers teetering on the edge and the Flyers out of the playoffs right now hahaha. Season ends today, and we get Pittsburgh, and yet.......that's a team I wouldn't look forward to playing in the playoffs. I'll take Boston, Montreal, Buffalo as teams I wouldn't mind playing.

Only if Ottawa screws up or gets a bad injury bug. The Sens should be the best team in the East. Luckily, they always seem to choke in the playoffs.

Only if Ottawa screws up or gets a bad injury bug. The Sens should be the best team in the East. Luckily, they always seem to choke in the playoffs.

Didn't choke much last year to be sure......

Didn't choke much last year to be sure......

I think many would argue they did. That certainly wasnt the same team when the puck dropped on the Stanley Cup Finals. I'm not saying the Ducks shouldnt have won, but there's no way they should have destroyed that Sens squad the way they did.

I'm not saying the Ducks shouldnt have won, but there's no way they should have destroyed that Sens squad the way they did.

What, with 3 one-goal games won late in the 3rd period?

Yeah, ridiculously one-sided.

I think many would argue they did. That certainly wasnt the same team when the puck dropped on the Stanley Cup Finals. I'm not saying the Ducks shouldnt have won, but there's no way they should have destroyed that Sens squad the way they did.

They also had like an 11 day lay-off in between. A playoff choker isn't someone who loses in the SCF, because you still beat 3 teams to get there and are one of two left standing out of 30 teams come June. Playoff choker is someone who finishes first, loses to eight, rinse, cycle and repeat. Much like the mid 90's Devils 97-99

The way that the NHL season has been so far, with ridiculous parity, do you really think it matters whether we get the 1 or 2 seed? I'm just worried about the Devils playing the best hockey that they can for the rest of the season. Hopefully, we'll win the division title. I'm not concerned about whether we'll play the 7 or 8 seed who, with the way the NHL is today, are not much different.

Maybe we can just play montreal for each round of the playoffs. I guarantee we would win the cup! :sarcasm:

I think we can definitely catch Ottawa. We obviously will need to piece together several wins at a time, but its doable. However, Detroit I can't see happening. The difference between us and them is the fact that they can put teams away when given the opportunity. We, however, have a certain doubt. But, I will say that we must be the most resilient team in the league, and that certainly counts for something.

There is only a 6 point difference between our guys and 9th place. I think winning some games consistantly is more important than catching up to Ottawa.

There is only a 6 point difference between our guys and 9th place. I think winning some games consistantly is more important than catching up to Ottawa.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, both goals are not mutually exclusive.

You all seem to have this dumb thought that taking 1st in the conference would mean playing bad hockey for awhile... while in fact the opposite would be true.

Like most opinions in here, I don't care about catching Ottawa right now when the season isn't even halfway done yet. I just want to see them play consistently and string some wins together.. some goals would be nice too :D

No more of this lose badly, barely win, lose badly sh**.

You all seem to have this dumb thought that taking 1st in the conference would mean playing bad hockey for awhile... while in fact the opposite would be true.

That's because if it weren't for some fortunate breaks this team could be on a 4-5 game losing streak right now and thinking about passing a team that is currently functioning well like Ottawa should be the least of our worries. It's well known that a win is a win, but we need to start beating our opponents cleanly like a 2nd place team should or we won't be there for long.

I'm actually more worried about seeing them stay at the top in the East. I'm not too worried about catching Ottawa. I'm fine with them being #2 in the East.

If we play the way we have in the last 15 games (for the most part), we'll catch them.

Only if Ottawa have their losing streak again.

Yeah. I also based my judgment on the fact that the Sens jersey/logo is pretty bad. :)

Hey, no argument here, I agree with you :biglaugh:

To be honest, I don't give a rat's ass about the standings as long as the Devils make the playoffs. Want to know why? Because when the Devils get knocked out in the 2nd round, it all means squat. I hope the team, as well as the fans, focus more on the Devils playing well, at both ends of the ice, than the standings. Stinkers like the 5-0 loss to Vancouver and the fact that they haven't beaten the Rangers and Islanders make me feel like the Devils don't really deserve to be at the top of the standings.

Like most opinions in here, I don't care about catching Ottawa right now when the season isn't even halfway done yet. I just want to see them play consistently and string some wins together.. some goals would be nice too :D

No more of this lose badly, barely win, lose badly sh**.



That's because if it weren't for some fortunate breaks this team could be on a 4-5 game losing streak right now and thinking about passing a team that is currently functioning well like Ottawa should be the least of our worries. It's well known that a win is a win, but we need to start beating our opponents cleanly like a 2nd place team should or we won't be there for long.

"Breaks"?

C'mon. You make it seem like they're lucky to get any wins this year. Give the Devils some credit. They won close ones, and those are always the hardest to win.

I just hope they make the playoffs.

The Sens are supposed to be Cup contenders, I think we should all be happy for the current position the Devils are in, a position I never thought they would be in.

i think we are better than ottawa. ottawa got off to a great start and they are a great team but they are not as good as some people make them out to be. for us to be in 2nd in the east with all the injuries and unfavorable schedule in the first part of the season is just incredible. congolosi mentioned yesterday that we only have 19 road games left that means we have 27 home games left so i defintley think that we can pass ottawa and we are defintley going to compete in the playoffs. i just cant ait for everybody to be healthy and we will be even better

I just want to beat some teams from NYC and LI first. Who knows this is the Devils were talking about. We made up 19pts to win a division with the same core of guys we have now.

I just want to see some consistency. We seem to win almost all of the games we play hard, while the games we lose we play lackluster. I think this can be an excellent hockey team if they come out to play every day.

I really hope the team isn't focused on beating Ottawa. Who cares about the #1 seed? Each time the Devils have won the Cup, someone else has finished first in the conference. In 95 and and 2000, the Devils actually finished second in the Division.

So, I'd much rather the Devils don't kill themselves chasing meaningless regular season statistics and instead focus on: getting Brodeur some rest, developing younger players to take on important roles in case of injury, solidifying their team defense, and finding some secondary scoring. I'd gladly give Ottawa the President's trophy if we could enter the playoffs with all of that.

"Breaks"?

C'mon. You make it seem like they're lucky to get any wins this year. Give the Devils some credit. They won close ones, and those are always the hardest to win.

First off, I don't know how it "seems" to you that way considering my post clearly indicated I was talking about their last 4-5 games.

They got lucky in Edmonton (yes, lucky.. they went over 5 periods without a goal) when they got 2 quick ones and an empty netter. Then they get outplayed most of the game last night to get a lucky break in OT. Those kind of wins can only last so long. This team can score goals, we've seen it. They're not doing it now and Marty won't bail them out every night by letting in only 1 goal or less. Winning by a goal doesn't automatically mark it as a hard fought victory.

I seriously doubt our coaches, GM and players are pleased with their recent play. They can be happy with a win (as I was yesterday) while still paying attention to the things they did wrong. If one of those shots doesn't hit the post last night it's 1-0 and their 8 game record since the streak goes from 4-4 to 3-5 with 3 shutouts against. They've scored 14 goals in those 8 games and in this league you need at least 3 to win consistently.. they are averaging under 2.

Right now, I'm just grateful the rest of the East hasn't done much better. I'll be to first to join you in giving the team credit once (as I mentioned earlier) they start winning like a 2nd place team and start scoring some goals.

for us to be in 2nd in the east with all the injuries and unfavorable schedule in the first part of the season is just incredible.

The Devil's schedule has been tougher, but Ottawa's had worse injury issues then us. It's already been addressed, but Ottawa's lost Spezza, Alfredsson, Eaves, Fisher, McAmmond, Emery and Volchenkov. That's worse for them then losing Langs, Pandolfo, White and Janssen was to us. Their depth saved their *** during those injuries.

We can beat them though, but they can beat us too. We both have the playoff series to prove it.

i think we are better than ottawa. ottawa got off to a great start and they are a great team but they are not as good as some people make them out to be. for us to be in 2nd in the east with all the injuries and unfavorable schedule in the first part of the season is just incredible. congolosi mentioned yesterday that we only have 19 road games left that means we have 27 home games left so i defintley think that we can pass ottawa and we are defintley going to compete in the playoffs. i just cant ait for everybody to be healthy and we will be even better

This Devils team is a playoff bound team, not a serious Cup contender. Not with the defense they have.

Lou will upgrade the roster with a trade or two. Our D needs to be uplifted.

Lou will upgrade the roster with a trade or two. Our D needs to be uplifted.If he can do this I'll be really pumped.

This Devils team is a playoff bound team, not a serious Cup contender. Not with the defense they have.Right because in the playoffs our weaknesses can be exposed like Ottawa last year. Lou has taken a different direction with this club and will have to continue in that direction. We need a solid shutdown pair on the blueline and some power play help to get to the next level. Anyway Im pleased with where we are in the standings. As Devils fans were so spoiled.:p:

The Devils always play better than they appear on paper. I'm not as worried over here.

Like most opinions in here, I don't care about catching Ottawa right now when the season isn't even halfway done yet. I just want to see them play consistently and string some wins together.. some goals would be nice too :D

No more of this lose badly, barely win, lose badly sh**.



That's because if it weren't for some fortunate breaks this team could be on a 4-5 game losing streak right now and thinking about passing a team that is currently functioning well like Ottawa should be the least of our worries. It's well known that a win is a win, but we need to start beating our opponents cleanly like a 2nd place team should or we won't be there for long.

I'm actually more worried about seeing them stay at the top in the East. I'm not too worried about catching Ottawa. I'm fine with them being #2 in the East.

Spot on men. Let's see some consistent scoring, no more blow outs and gimme shutouts to undeserving opposing keepers and I'll take second in the conference to the Sens. Home ice did against them did nothing for us last year and we beat them in 2003 up there. More worried that we can create scoring chances from the slot against them.