The New Jersey Devils are guaranteed this much while they continue to wait for their adversary in the Eastern Conference final: the series will start on Monday, the other team will be wearing red, white and blue and they will present a comparable concoction of reliable goaltending, defensive-minded coaching and one or two elite scorers.
If the top-seeded New York Rangers prevail on Saturday, the discussions will immediately turn to Martin Brodeur versus Henrik Lundqvist and Ilya Kovalchuk versus Marian Gaborik, just to name two storylines.
If the Washington Capitals complete the upset, it will be Brodeur versus Braden Holtby, Kovalchuk versus Alex Ovechkin and so on.
If the Rangers end up on deck, they will be confronting a sixth-seeded Devils team immediately after surviving a scare from the seventh-seeded Capitals and a nearly identical toil with the eighth-seeded Ottawa Senators beforehand.
With four more nights of recharging and preparation, New Jersey could have a written invitation to be the ostensible underdog that finally lassos John Tortorella’s pupils. Although, they will have to do that by taking at least one game away from Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers will be 5-3 this spring, including two Game 7 victories, if they triumph on Saturday.
On the other hand, if the Caps prevail in their second straight Game 7, the next round will begin at the Prudential Center, where the Devils are 4-1 in the playoffs for a league-best .800 winning percentage on home ice.
In addition, the unripe Holtby will be asked to pull the hat trick and win yet another arm-wrestling bout with a seasoned, elite counterpart. And that will be after a negligible recovery period in the wake of besting Lundqvist and Boston’s Tim Thomas, each in the maximum seven games.
Do note that Brodeur has 193 career Stanley Cup playoff games under his belt, whereas Holtby, Lundqvist and Thomas will have all combined for 115 after Saturday’s New York-Washington decider.
At the same time, the 40-year-old Devils’ goaltender has not had much postseason fulfillment in the last nine years, and he may be looking at his best chance for a savory sendoff. His odds in the intangibles department may be better against an out-of-the-blue rookie than a seven-year franchise cornerstone looking to hit the final frontier.
Washington may also have a tougher time averting and/or responding to two-goal deficits if they cross paths with the Devils. Not counting empty-netters, three of New Jersey’s first eight playoff wins have been decided by more than one goal, including two out of four against the potent Philadelphia Flyers.
The Rangers have won two of their first 13 games in the same fashion, one of which was a 3-1 Game 1 triumph over Washington, the only multi-goal differential on the Capitals’ transcript.
Meanwhile, Washington has seen six of its 13 postseason games go to overtime, posting a 2-4 record in that scenario. They split four bonus stanzas in the first round against Boston, but have blinked against the Blueshirts on two tries.
The Rangers are 2-2 in sudden death, with both losses coming in the quarterfinals and both wins in the semis. The Devils are 3-1 with two wins in back-to-back elimination games against Florida and a split in the Philadelphia series.
If their first six tangles with one another are any indication, the Rangers will need to tap into their depth a little more if they move on, whereas some of Washington’s top guns could stand to shore up at even strength.
Each team has seen a pair of its most leaned-on scorers penetrate the opposition’s laser-beamed defense for three goals apiece, those being Gaborik and Brad Richards for New York and Ovechkin and Jason Chimera for Washington.
Gaborik and Richards have played on the same line and accounted for nearly half of the Rangers’ 13 goals against Holtby.
Chimera and Oveckin play on separate offensive units at even strength, though two of Ovechkin’s goals on Lundqvist have come on the power play. Ditto four of Washington’s 12 goals on the series, none of which have come from the likes of Alexander Semin or Troy Brouwer.
The Rangers, have also tallied four power-play strikes in the conference semifinals, which only amplifies the mirror-image look of the Devils’ prospective third-round foes.
In turn, the proper course of action in deciding the more ideal opponent may be inaction. Instead, New Jersey should appreciate and be ready to capitalize on the critical difference in rest, recovery and page-turning time.
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