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Jagr: I’ve always believed we were a playoff team

Washington Capitals v New Jersey Devils

NEWARK, NJ - APRIL 04: Jaromir Jagr #68 of the New Jersey Devils skates against the Washington Capitals at the Prudential Center on April 4, 2014 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Capitals 2-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Bruce Bennett

The New Jersey Devils still has a legitimate chance to make the playoffs and that’s pretty impressive given how long they’ve been on the ropes.

It’s been an up-and-down campaign and you could get an accurate idea of what was happening at any given time based on Jaromir Jagr’s quotes alone. He’s been upfront about his feelings on how the team is doing throughout the campaign.

We’ve seen both extremes of that lately with him blasting the team’s preseason-quality effort in a 6-3 victory on Monday to talking about how proud he was of them after edging out Washington on Friday.

He argues that the one constant is that he never lost faith that the team would make the playoffs.

“I’ve believed since day one,” Jagr insisted, per the Star-Ledger.

He’s not alone in that belief. The Devils have stayed focused on competing despite the long odds that they’ve faced for a while now. They’ve managed to claw their way back from a 9.39% chance of making the playoffs following a loss to the New York Rangers on March 22, per the Sports Club Stats. They’ve been beaten in shootouts a few times since that defeat, but never in regulation.

New Jersey won’t play tonight, but Columbus is set to face the New York Islanders. If the Blue Jackets lose in regulation, then the Devils will be just one point back with four games left in both teams’ schedules.

Follow @RyanDadoun