Devils Win Over Rangers Comes With Side Benefit Of Minimizing A Potential Mystique Should Teams Meet In Playoffs
Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff had an interesting comment following his club’s 2-1 nailbiter victory over the rival Rangers on Thursday night at The Rock. In a game with immense implications for the regular season, New Jersey found a way to eke out a win against the team they are most likely to see when the Stanley Cup Playoffs commence in two weeks.
Ruff was talking about his team’s outstanding defensive performance—outside of a dreadful giveaway by Devils wing Yegor Sharangovich in his own zone while killing a second period penalty that, after a couple of lucky puck bounces, ended up on the stick of Chris Kreider for an easy Rangers goal, it was his club’s tightest outing since their shutout of Carolina on March 12—but it applied to both ends of the ice.
“(The Rangers) have got some shooters that probably don’t need as many chances as we need,” Ruff said.
Hence, Ruff was alluding to the outsized importance to New Jersey of burying opportunities—no matter who is in the opposition’s net--as much as playoff staples such as defense and goaltending.
Finishing plays has been an issue at times in this season of incredible growth. Turbocharged by the outstanding speed of their young top guns like Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier, the Devils lead the league in expected goals for and high danger scoring chances generated at five-on-five this season, per NaturalStatTrick.com, They can create off the rush or cycles inside the offensive zone. The outcomes of those chances, though, puts them fourth and sixth, respectively, in the league in those categories, thanks to a 17th-ranked five-on-five shooting percentage.
As a Devils fans since their move to New Jersey in 1982, I’ve shuddered every time they drew the Rangers in a playoff series. With so much blue in the Continental Arena/Prudential Center stands, any home ice advantage was always diminished. And though I would take no one over Martin Brodeur during his legendary run in the Devils’ net, New York has boasted top-shelf goalies like Mike Richter and Henrik Lundqvist in each of the six postseason matchups between the two clubs.
Current Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin has been establishing a record that continues that tradition. The reigning Vezina Trophy winner, despite some lulls during the season, ranks sixth in the league in goals saved above average, per NST.
The Devils, though, have rendered Shesterkin mortal in taking three of the four meetings this season. His 3.23 goals against average versus New jersey would place him 33rd among the 49 netminders who have played at least 25 games this season. Similarly, his .907 save percentage in those contests is also relatively middling.
I’m not asserting that Shesterkin has been bad—he stopped 29 of 31 Devils shots on Thursday, including 8 of 9 on high danger chances, per NST. He couldn’t be directly faulted for either of the Devils’ first period goals--Erik Haula’s backdoor tap-in from the blue paint of a Dougie Hamilton pass or Timo Meier’s slot shot that was partially deflected by Rangers penalty killer Barclay Goodrow.
But what was important was that the Devils won’t be entering a potential playoff series facing a mystique. In other words, I might have trepidations about them facing the Shesterkin-backed Rangers; they won’t.
Of course, any goalie can get hot in a playoff series—Stanley Cup lore is flush with examples of unlikely heroes in goal. And let’s not forget that on the other end, Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek, no matter his excellent regular season numbers (his victory on Thursday was his 30th this season, a level only Brodeur had previously reached in franchise history), has a 1-1 career record in the playoffs. No one can know how he’ll fare when the bright lights are turned on, but we do know that he can’t ever be merely average against a star-studded Rangers lineup.
Again, that is if there is indeed a seventh postseason meeting between the cross-Hudson rivals. Thursday’s win not only put the Devils (47-20-8) four points up on the third-place Rangers in the Metropolitan Division race with seven games remaining, their chances of catching first-place Carolina received a serious boost when lowly Detroit shocked the Canes with a game-winning goal with three seconds remaining in regulation on Thursday night to narrow their lead to one point with a game in hand.
No matter who they end up playing in the first round, the Devils will have valid reasons to feel confident that they can keep the opposing goalie from getting in their heads.