With their 3-0 Easter Sunday victory over the Montreal Canadiens the New Jersey Devils reached 40 wins on the season. Normally that’s enough to propel a team into the playoffs. Yet the Devils are likely to begin their spring early as even with their strong recent play they sit seven points out of a playoff spot. So why wasn’t 40 wins enough?
The Devils record entering Monday was 40-34-3, just two wins back of last year’s playoff team that finished 42-33-7. The records are nearly identical. The difference this season is that the teams in front of them in the Eastern Conference playoff race have stacked together overtime/shootout losses. That third number in their record is not only higher, but most likely in the double digits.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers sit second and third, respectively, in the Metropolitan Division entering play Monday. Pittsburgh has 16 overtime/ shootout losses, resulting in one standings point each, while Philadelphia has 12. The Ottawa Senators currently occupy the second Eastern Conference wild card with 10 overtime/ shootout losses.
This trend isn’t only in the Eastern Conference. The top three teams in the Central Division all have at least 10 overtime/shootout losses. The Vegas Golden Knights sit third in the Pacific Division with 16 overtime/ shootout losses. The Los Angeles Kings are tied in points for the last Western Conference Wild card with 19 overtime/shootout losses.
The Kings broke the NHL record for most overtime games in a season and nearly a quarter of their schedule has been an overtime or shootout loss. Only two of the 16 playoff teams last season had at least 10 overtime/shoot out losses. If the playoffs began today half the teams would reach that mark, and there’s still a week’s worth of games to play.
If only the Devils had secured more “loser” points they could be playoff bound. The team has played strong all season with the exception of an absolutely brutal (and lengthy) stretch from American Thanksgiving until the Olympic break. Since Jack Hughes became an American hero with his overtime goal the Devils are 12-7-1, which would be good enough for 102-103 points over an 82 game schedule.
Fans love to lament about the “loser” point. Is it fair that a team like the Kings, whose win-loss record without the pity point is 31-47 through 76 games, gets in instead of the Devils that might win ten more games? In the “loser points” defense it is a sign that teams are playing competitive hockey through 60 minutes. Even if the final result isn’t a win it shows they’re keeping up with their competition and keeping games close. That’s something the Devils failed to do for over a two months’ time span.
Some say the Devils had bad puck luck this season. There’s some credence to that theory, as they are dead last in the league in goals scored above expected (through April 5th). While the rest of the league found ways to manufacture just enough offense to push the game past the third period the Devils scoring problems held them back from doing even that during through prolonged stretch of scoring struggles. If anything the Devils lack of “loser points” is indicative of the Devils team we saw throughout December and January, who bluntly didn’t look like they should be anywhere near the playoffs.
Interestingly this is the opposite of what happened to another Devils team in somewhat recent memory. The 2013-2014 team was the Devils first after Ilya Kovalchuk’s surprising “retirement” back to the KHL. Nothing was expected from them, but they finished with 88 points and stayed in the playoff race until the season’s ending. That team was also known for their historical ineptitude in the shootout. It was their league leading 18 overtime/shootout losses that season that kept them alive in the playoff picture.
Currently the Devils are 5-8 in one goal games decided in regulation this season. Their overtime/shootout record is an impressive 12-3. They played past 60 minutes plenty of times but every point still counts so their fans wish they did that more.