We lose a game to NJD and now I'm really seeing post about missing the playoffs
We have a 3rd best P% in the division with games in hand on WSH, NYI, PIT, NYR and BUF. We haven't even played the worst team in our division yet, meanwhile all the other teams have played the following games vs Buffalo:
WSH: 5 games
NJD: 5 games
PHI: 4 games
NYR: 3 games
NYI: 3 games
PIT: 0 games
Going into the year WSH, PHI, PIT and NYI were all teams that we're expected to be contenders this year. Just going by P% in the NHL those 4 teams rank...
NYI - 6th
WSH - 7th
PHI - 12th
PIT - 15th
So far this year Boston has played 68% of its game against these 4 teams. Basically right now for every 3 games we play against these 4 teams, we get one game vs NJD or NYR (obviously haven't played BUF yet). We're missing half our top 4 defense, all 3 of our key PK d-men and secondary scoring is still a problem....yet were 8th in the NHL in P% and 7th in Goal Diff.