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The New Jersey Devils may not be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention but their chances all but evaporated following a regulation loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
The Devils, who need all the points they can get, conceded the eventual game-winning-goal with less than two minutes to play against a Hurricanes team that just parted ways with three of their better players without bringing back any NHL bodies in the process.
With that loss the Devils have now been on the losing end of three straight games, six of seven, nine of 13 and are quickly falling down the standings after an excellent first half of the season.
SportsClubStats suggests the Devils need to go something like 12-3-3 down the stretch to give themselves ~70% chance of making the playoffs. That's an absurd ask for a team that scores less than anyone and just traded their leading point getter for draft picks.
It's even more unrealistic when you look at the Devils' schedule. They have 18 games remaining - 10 of which are on the road - and their next six are against teams currently possessing playoff spots in Nashville, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim.
Even if the Devils somehow managed to survive that stretch they'd still have to deal with Tampa Bay (x2), Pittsburgh and Washington, among others, in their final handful of games. That's an impossible schedule for almost any team, let alone one that has registered only 30 wins in 64 games.
The good news is the Devils improve their draft positioning while increasing the chances of winning one of the top-3 picks via lottery with each loss. Given their remaining schedule it's probably safe to say there will be quite a few of them.
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