Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils took on their longtime rivals the New York Rangers. The Devils' regular season was legendary for numerous reasons, the most important being rewarded with a playoff berth for the first time since 2018. The Devils fall to the Rangers, 5-1 in Jack Hughes' playoffs debut.
“It’s not the start we wanted, they got an early goal after a couple of missed power plays,” defensemen Ryan Graves. “We’re not going to blow it up, it’s just one and it’s probably a ton of jitters from the young guys.”
Early in the game, the Devils appeared to come out strong, however the game quickly began to get away from them. Due to the stakes of the playoff game, some believe it was early nerves that affected their play on the ice. Not to mention, the execution of special teams really played a factor in the game one loss.
“I think there’s always jitter but it's how you handle them,” center Erik Haula stated. “I think we learned our lesson and think we’ll be fine going forward.”
Unfortunately, there were moments in the game where the Rangers appeared to overwhelm the Devils with physicality. However, the makeup of this young team is far from soft, as they answered with a few vicious blows themselves. It appeared the most memorable hit was Hughes' hit on Rangers left wing Chris Kreider.
Lack of Intensity for the Devils
The opening 10 minutes of the game seemed very telling of how differently playoff hockey is played. The Rangers came out early looking to set the tone, and the Devils necessarily didn’t answer the challenge. However, they did begin to pick their intensity up towards the very end of the period after giving two goals. Goaltender Vitek Vanecek, who’s been impressive for the majority of the season, struggled throughout the game. He seemed to be picking up momentum at times during the game, but the Rangers continued to snatch momentum.
Ultimately, the Devils trailed the Rangers heading into the second period, 2-0.
The Devils Attempted to Change Momentum
During the second period, the Devils appeared to pick up their intensity and attempt to build momentum clearly, but they were unable capitalize on the opportunities. It appeared the puck wouldn’t give them a friendly bounce, not to mention the Devils' special teams severely struggling. They continued to skate of desperation instead of purpose, therefore resulting in numerous takeaways for the Rangers.
The Rangers managed to kill a ton of the Devils' power plays while also having fewer shots on goal. After the Devils couldn’t get much going with their power plays, the Rangers were able to gain momentum, which turned into another goal for them. The Rangers took a 3-0 lead heading into the final period of the game.
The final period consisted of the Devils showing fight and girt, but it was just too little too late. The Rangers continued to build on their momentum and this carried through the remainder of the game. With three minutes remaining, the Devils received a penalty shot that Hughes managed to score. Unfortunately, this only cut the deficit by three goals. Within a minute of the Devils scoring their first goal, the Rangers answered with a goal of their own and sucked the life out of the building.
The Devils will have to execute better on the offensive end if they want to tie the series at one game a piece on Thursday night.
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