Here’s the thing about parity — it makes bad teams think they’re not that bad.
There is an obvious example right here in New Jersey, where the Devils are fooling themselves if they think winning 25 of their first 60 games — sounds a lot worse than 25-25-10, doesn’t it? — should have them within relative striking distance of a playoff spot. Going into Friday night’s action, they were eight points shy of the second wild card (held by the Islanders) with six teams to leapfrog and 22 games to play.
So that brings us to the March 1 trade deadline.