Beyond Center Ice

 It's the final preview of the 2nd round! With it, we look at the two best in the Metro, the Hurricanes in the Devils, who each handled their New York opponents in round one.  This series is going to be fun. The Canes played 6 extremely hard fought games where they came out on top versus an Islanders team that many (including me) expected to make an upset happen. They relatively outplayed the Isles at their game, and managed to get the amount of goals they needed on Sorokin to propel them through. Their PK was fantastic, but part of that had to also do with the terrible-ness that was the Islander Power Play. As for the Devils, they had a tough series as well. The Rangers put up a great fight, including winning the first two games and making the Devils look extremely inexperienced. But, they rebounded, starting rookie tendy Akira Schmid in game 3, and then went on to win the next 3 games, including 2 at MSG. They lost game 6 but came out strong and dominated play in game 7, pic...

The Devils and the Rangers are understandably one of the most highly touted playoff matchups of this first round. They're located just 30 miles apart and are huge rivals, so this series will be a blast. The Devils landed home-ice advantage and just barely missed out on the top spot in the Metro, while the Rangers have been locked in 3rd for a while now. The Devils are currently the slim favorites, but let's take a look at both teams and then make our decision on who will move on to Round 2 between this fierce matchup. The Devils have been one of the best teams in hockey as of late. They finished 3rd in the NHL with a 56.56 Goals%, and 2nd to the Canes with a 56.5 xG%. They've played right up to what they're supposed to. Their Corsi% is similarly top 5 in the NHL and they look electric every single time they play. There's nothing you can adjust these stats for that say that the Devils are anything but a top 5 NHL team. If they were in the west, they would've easi...

  The Devils are tearing up the very tough Eastern Conference right now. That is a fact. They're 47-20-8, clinched for the playoffs, and are seriously threatening the Hurricanes for that #1 in the division spot. In their last 10 games, they're only 4-4-2 though. If the Devils really want to challenge for the Stanley Cup that many think they can, it'll be a tough road. They'll certainly have to deal with one of or both of the Hurricanes and Rangers, and even if they make it through those two, they would have to deal with one of the juggernauts in the Atlantic Division. Let's take a deeper look into the numbers and decipher if this Devils team is a contender or a pretender.  Surface Level When you're looking at the surface level stats, everything is looking great in NJ. Their goal differential (52) is 2nd in the east, only outmatched by that of the Bruins (118). Jack Hughes has 40 goals and is going to finish the season close to 100 points, while Jesper Bratt, Nic...