Not The Way The Devils (And Their Fans) Wanted To Be Reintroduced To Playoff Hockey
But It's Just One Game
The Devils fan site Pucks and Pitchforks put it best in a tweet: “They made us wait five years for this?”
In New Jersey’s first playoff game since 2018, everything that could go wrong for them did in its 5-1 loss to the rival Rangers in front of a split Prudential Center crowd on Tuesday night. Only a Jack Hughes penalty shot goal with 2:46 remaining saved the Devils from the embarrassment of their first shutout of the season, as the more experienced Rangers played the quintessential road game to go up 1-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek let in a couple he may want back while his counterpart Igor Shesterkin gave what little New Jersey put forth nothing to shoot at. MSG Networks “Save of the Game” was a Tomas Tatar wrister from the slot that hit Shesterkin square in the midsection, proving that he didn’t need to be spectacular in this one,
The Rangers showed the Devils what it means to pay the price, blocking 23 shots and laying out to disrupt the seam passes that made New Jersey so dangerous all season. The Rangers, meanwhile, buried their best chances, with five goals on 23 shots.
As has been common all season, the Devils started slow, with New York carrying much of the play in the first period to go up 2-0. Well, rallying from early deficits was New Jersey’s specialty, right? They tied Boston for most wins (22) this season when surrendering the first goal.
Only this isn’t the regular season. When New Jersey dictated most of the action in the next two periods, they were still outscored, 2-0, again before Hughes’ snipe. In the playoffs, teams not only understand better how to play with a lead, but they are also more committed to executing the plan so as to limit chances against.
And when the Devils did look like they were in position to generate momentum, they consistently stubbed their own toes by missing the net on some of their best chances and making poor decisions in the offensive zone.
A special poop emoji goes to the Devils’ special teams, which ultimately cost them the game. Four power plays—all without a single shot that hit the net. Less than two minutes after the first one expired, Vladimir Tarasenko got free in the slot and beat Vanecek to open the floodgates.
And when it was New York’s turn with the man advantage midway through the first period, Chris Kreider redirected the first of his two power play goals in three Rangers opportunities on the night. Each came after Devils defenseman Ryan Graves had the puck on his stick with an opportunity to clear the zone and couldn’t. New York nearly went three-for-three on the power play but Alexis Lafreniere’s deflection in the second period was disallowed due to a high stick.
No matter. Ryan Lindgren squeezed a roofed wrister from a somewhat sharp angle near the left post past Vanecek about 45 seconds after Devils forward Erik Haula escaped the penalty box to put New York up by an insurmountable 3-0 margin.
Maybe the Devils could take a page from the Rangers playbook, because it seems incomprehensible to me how net front presences like Kreider are unbothered as they stand in front of goalies for screens and deflections.
Yet, that’s how most teams defend power plays. I’ve mentioned this often in past posts, but if marquee trade deadline acquisition Timo Meier isn’t up for that specific job because he likes to move around to get off shots, then the Devils need to get fourth line winger Nathan Bastian to do exactly that. He’s six-foot four and has a tremendous record of taking away goalies’ eyes with what I, taking a page from NBA stats, call “screen assists.”
The Devils were easy to defend because they were too perimeter oriented, relying on Hughes’ ability to shoot/pass as he walked down to the left wing circle. The Rangers took away his usual targets, like defenseman Dougie Hamilton at the top of the diamond and Jesper Bratt at the opposite circle, so the Devils spent a good chunk of their power plays winding pucks around the boards to retain possession.
Other than tweaking the power play, I didn’t see much that required major adjustments for Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff in advance of Thursday’s Game 2 at the Rock. I thought the team matched the Rangers’ physicality (the NHL counted New York with a 32-30 advantage in hits and New Jersey didn’t back down from entanglements) and didn’t have any glaring puck management gaffes at five-on-five. The Rangers were just better.
For those who are immediately dismissing this team after one lousy performance, I remind them that: 1) I’ve seen many a series in my 50 years of watching the NHL where the Game 1 loser rallied to win. Heck, my first live playoff experience was the 1975 Islanders, who stormed back from down 3-0 to beat Pittsburgh (and nearly did the same thing the next round except the Flyers took Game 7); and 2) The Devils have been written off by many in the media at every opportunity when they slumped. They have found ways to right the ship, especially on the road.
n the end, Tuesday night was just one game, though I guess that if you’ve been a suffering fan through more than a decade of bad hockey, this was not the way you wanted to be reintroduced to the Stanley Cup playoffs.