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Devils could be blessed by light travel schedule next season

New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils

of the New York Rangers of the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on September 23, 2011 in Newark, New Jersey.

Bruce Bennett

With the 2011-12 season rapidly approaching, the gang at PHT decided to take a look at all 30 NHL teams’ schedules. Each team’s highs and lows will be studied in detail to give you an idea of what the future might hold for each squad.

Note: Mileage figures via On the Forecheck’s “Super Schedule.”

New Jersey Devils schedule analysis

Travel mileage: 28,597 (least in the NHL)

Back-to-back games: 15

Toughest stretches

The early part of the Devils’ schedule is pretty rough, which isn’t great news since Travis Zajac could be sidelined until 2012. After playing their first three games at home, they’ll finish October with five of six games away from Newark, including a four-game trip that starts against the Penguins and then swings through the Pacific Division. While they go from New Jersey to Pittsburgh in back-to-back games, the four-game trip doesn’t include any back-to-backs, though.

November starts off friendly again, only to turn on them. From Nov. 12 to Nov. 21, they’ll play five road games in a row. Shortly after that, they’ll play five of six games away from home to enter December.

The Devils don’t really have an especially brutal stretch, to be honest, though; their longest road trip is just five games. Aside from that, they have four different four-game road trips. New Jersey doesn’t seem to have too many huge hurdles relatively speaking.

Easiest periods

The Devils’ schedule doesn’t have a ton of highs and lows, but there’s one period in which the team should stock up some points. They’ll play six straight games at home from Jan. 17 to Feb 2. None of those games are back-to-back contests and they even get a week off during that stretch, so this is when they’ll need to stock up points.

New Jersey also plays seven of 10 games at home from mid-December to early-January, as well, so that won’t be their only golden opportunity to put a run together - just arguably the best one.

Overall outlook

Let’s face it, the Devils will likely go as 39-year-old goalie Martin Brodeur goes in 2011-12. With that in mind, the team’s comfy travel schedule could be a real boon. They also lack a genuinely vicious road stretch, which is a godsend if their 16-23-2 record in away games isn’t an outlier.

A relatively challenging first three months is a bummer considering Zajac’s injury issues, but overall, their schedule is pretty friendly. The Devils might want to give Brodeur a break during most of those 15 back-to-back games, though.