The Atlantic Division was the best in the league during the regular season, and with three of the final four teams in the Eastern Conference coming from that group it's pretty difficult to go against that claim.
The Flyers and Devils, two of the teams still standing, open their Conference Semifinal series on Sunday.
They were separated by just one point in the standings during the season, and split the six meetings this year with each team winning three games. Needless to say, it's a pretty evenly matched series, even though they have completely different styles of play.
The Flyers win with offense (a lot of it). The Devils, as they always seem to do, win with a more defensive-minded approach. Can the Flyers continue their explosive goal-scoring against New Jersey? Can the Devils find enough offense to keep up with the Flyers? We're about to find out.
Philadelphia Offense vs. New Jersey Defense
The unstoppable force meets the immovable object.
The Flyers have no shortage of offensive weapons up front, and it all starts with Claude Giroux. With 14 points in his first six playoff games he is coming off a series against Pittsburgh where he was the best player on the ice (resulting in his coach claiming him to be the be the best player in the world) and outshined Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. As a group, the Flyers are outstanding in transition and can take a mistake by their opponents and turn it into a goal in the blink of an eye.
New Jersey, on the other hand, doesn't allow many chances, giving up just 26 shots per game during the regular season. They were still just a middle of the pack team when it came to actually allowing goals, which was due in large part to the declining play of Martin Brodeur in net (more on that in a bit).
I still like the Flyers forwards in this matchup simply because they have such great depth up front. Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Jaromr Jagr, Danny Briere, Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, Brayden Schenn, Max Talbot and Sean Couturier is as good as any group still playing in the playoffs.
New Jersey Offense vs. Philadelphia Defense
The concern for the Flyers defense is that they seem seem to be simply running out of bodies.
It's a rather shorthanded group at this point due to injuries, and they struggled in the opening round series against Pittsburgh. Fortunately they're not going up against a team in the second round that's as explosive offensively, but the Devils still have some players that are capable of putting the puck in the net. Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, Adam Henrique and Travis Zajac can definitely cause some problems for the Flyers.
Perhaps even more important than the Flyers blueliners is what assignment rookie forward Sean Couturier will get. In the first round he was matched up almost exclusively with Malkin, and more often than not was able to shut him down. As the season has gone on coach Peter Laviolette has trusted him more and more against other teams top players, and he's quickly becoming one of Philadelphia's most reliable defensive forwards. And he's still only a teenager.
Still, the lack of depth on the Flyers blue line is a concern, especially given the way they played in the previous round.
Goaltending
I'm not sure that I trust either one of these goalies at this point.
After struggling in the playoffs the past two years in Phoenix, things haven't gone much better for Ilya Bryzgalov this postseason in Philadelphia. Brodeur is going to the Hall of Fame as soon as he's eligible, but he's nowhere near the same player he once was and showed his age at times against Florida in the opening round.
Both of them are vulnerable in this series.
Special Teams
The Flyers power play was a juggernaut against Pittsburgh, and was one of the top units in the league during the regular season. So it's going to be an interesting matchup when they have to go up against the Devils, a penalty killing group that finished the season as the best in the NHL.
Not only do the Devils not allow power play goals, having successfully killed off nearly 90 percent of their penalties during the season, they're also the most dangerous team in the league when they're down a man with a league-best 15 shorthanded goals. There were only three other teams in the league that scored even 10.
It should be another pretty even matchup in the series, and the same should be true on the other side when New Jersey's power play goes up against Philadelphia's penalty kill, as both groups were middle of the pack during the season.
Prediction
Flyers in six
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