Playoff preview: (3) Florida vs. (6) New Jersey

The Florida Panthers went through five different coaches between playoff appearances. So perhaps it's only fitting they face one of those exes in their long-awaited return to the postseason.

By Brian Stubits

Apr 11, 2012 at 11:02 am ET • 3 min read

The two teams split the four-game season series. (Getty Images)

The Florida Panthers went through five different coaches between playoff appearances. So perhaps it's only fitting they face one of those exes in their long-awaited return to the postseason. It sounds a little like a Woody Allen movie plot.

Peter DeBoer, fired by the Panthers after three non-playoff seasons in Florida, will get to see the postseason in Sunrise first-hand anyway. That's because he landed on his feet better than a falling cat and brought the New Jersey Devils back to their usual spot in the playoffs. His return adds only a little extra intrigue to a series that actually has a bit of it.

It's entirely possible that we could be seeing the final games of arguable the best goalie to ever play the game in Martin Brodeur. The veteran Devils netminder is still kicking the tires on returning next season and probably will if I had to hazard a guess, but all bets could be off with summer CBA struggles.

On the other end of the ice, the team with the home-ice advantage mind you, is the Panthers. You've undoubtedly heard it by now, they haven't seen the playoffs since Bill Clinton was in office, Stephen Weiss finally sees the postseason. From that perspective alone the series has some intrigue.

In the actual sense, though, this sure looks like a mismatch. Sure, Florida has the home-ice, but that's about it in the advantages. These two were headed in different directions entering the playoffs; New Jersey having won its final six games, Florida having won only two of its final 10.

FLA offense vs. NJ defense

Scoring just isn't Florida's forte, it hasn't been for a long time. There's a reason why they led the league in OTLs, it's because they can't pull ahead of any teams. Their 2.40 goals per game was fourth worst in the entire league.

Defensively the Devils are strong, but they aren't unbeatable. As we've come to expect with the franchise, they don't give teams a lot of chances to enter the zone or do much when they get there. Let me put it this way, they were 1/10th of a point behind the Blues for fewest shots against per game in the NHL.

NJ offense vs. FLA defense

The Devils have some solid firepower offensively in Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise and David Clarkson (not exclusively either). Those three all had at least 30 goals this season. But overall they were just middle of the road when it came to scoring this season. The lack of offense from the blue line doesn't help.

As a group the Panthers defense is good, not great, but not bad either. They clocked in at 12th in the league in goals against this season. The organization might not have much playoff experience, but there is some here with Brian Campbell and Ed Jovanovski (with four games from Mike Weaver).

Goaltending

If anything, the Panthers actually have an edge here, but I can't go against Brodeur, even if he hasn't been great in the playoffs lately. The good news is the last time he faced Florida in the postseason the Devils swept. The bad news is that was 12 years ago. His .908 save percentage won't strike fear into Florida.

The problem with the Panthers is that right now there is no clear No. 1. For most of the season it was Jose Theodore, but he was awful down the stretch while Scott Clemmensen -- former Devil -- was very good. If I'm Kevin Dineen, Clemmensen is my starter. But Theodore does have playoff experience and had a .917 save percentage on the season.

Special teams

Florida finally found some success on the power play this season, thanks in big part to Campbell's presence. But the Devils' penalty kill was far and away the best in the league at an 89.6 percent success rate, and dangerous offensively too with 15 short-handed goals.

While Florida's power play improved, the penalty kill fell off a cliff. That was one thing they did well through years of losing was kill penalties. This season they were 25th in the league. Compared to New Jersey's 14th-best power-play unit, it's another edge toward the Devils.