Eh. First of all, I doubt the Devils would not be underdogs against the Wings team even in a full season. Second, I think you're putting too much stock in an at most 7 game sample size. Too much luck involved to say that the likes of the Flames and Oilers lost by their one goal because they were less talented. And it's not a large leap from competitive to winning a series in the NHL in a 7 game series. So much luck involved and goaltending plays a huge role that if a team is competitive then likely with some luck they could have won the series. Even in series where I don't think a team would beat another team in a million years in a best of 7, you see wacky results. The Hurricanes were mediocrity personified faced perhaps the best team since the 80s Oilers (very arguable but they were great), won a game and played an OT and a 1 goal game in the cup clinching game. They didn't even allow more than 3 goals in any of the games. That has to be one of the biggest talent discrepancies in SC Finals history and it was ridiculously competitive. There are zero teams in the NHL IMO that are as much better than us than those Wings were over those Canes. The Canes weren't winning that series, but it's amazing how competitive that series was and the talent was almost comical.
, McDonagh is a All Star/Olympic defenseman and both Girardi/Staal were mentioned as names for possible defenders for team Canada in the olympics. While we don't have two HHOF defenders, 1 olympic defender with two other potential olympic defenders does show the strength of our defensive core as a whole.
