The New Jersey Devils couldn't hold onto third place in the Patrick Division. Now they'll try to hold back the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"Obviously, no one wants to play Pittsburgh - not first, anyway," Devils center Bernie Nicholls said after Friday night's 8-4 season-closing loss to the New York Islanders.The Devils, beaten out of a third-place spot in the Patrick Division, have the undesirable task of playing the NHL's top team when the playoffs open on Sunday (1 p.m EDT.)
With their victory, the Islanders earned a first-round meeting against second-place Washington in the other Patrick Division game.
They are two of six games on a first-day schedule crowded by a shifting of games because of network television.
Usually, the Wales Conference would have four games on Sunday and the Campbell Conference four on Monday.
But the Chicago-St. Louis Norris Division game (1 p.m. EDT) and the Los Angeles Kings-Calgary Flames Smythe game (3 p.m. EDT) will shift to Sunday for ABC's regional coverage. ESPN, the all-sports network partly owned by ABC, is buying the air time.
Other games on Sunday will feature the New York Islanders at the Washington Capitals in the Patrick and Buffalo at Boston and Montreal at Quebec in the Adams.
The Detroit-Toronto Norris Division game and the Vancouver-Winnipeg Smythe game will be played on Monday.
The showing of the Penguins-Devils game will mark the first time since 1980 that an NHL game other than an All-Star game has been on national television in America.
The last time the teams met, the Devils tied the Penguins 6-6 on Wednesday night, snapping Pittsburgh's record 17-game winning streak. The Penguins have been idle since.