New Jersey and New York will do battle in the playoffs for the first time since 2012 and this series has all the makings of a classic. Most sports fans would look at this as a mismatch on paper, as the Rangers are stacked with top-tier, name-brand talent, but the Devils betting odds have the Devils as a short favorite and that probably isn’t a surprise to most sports bettors. To get a sense of each team's strengths and weaknesses, let's take a closer look at their respective statistics and compare them head-to-head.
Here's a tale of the tape for the upcoming series:
The Devils aren’t a Darkhorse anymore. Long gone are the days when they were 66/1 longshot to win the Stanley Cup. They’re a contender now, and it should be obvious why. New Jersey holds an edge over New York in just about every category. However, while year-to-date stats do provide some context, how the teams have been performing lately matters, too, and the edge the Devils had on offense looks to have diminished quite a bit with the two teams scoring roughly the same number of goals per 60 minutes at even strength since the trade deadline.