Blanked to the brink, It’s on the Rangers stars to save the season

If there’s a lesson the New York Rangers should learn from game five, there’s a reason why the Stanley Cup playoffs emphasize will over skill. The mentality of the players and coaches changes, and so does the income. The league imposes no salary cap, and players’ yearly salaries are paid in full by the end of the regular season.

As these seven-game series wear on, the team with less finesse but more fitness has the better chance of emerging victorious because they’ve been playing that way since the ride began in October.

The latter is the New Jersey Devils, who have turned this Hudson River Rivalry upside down with their 4-0 thrashing of the Blueshirts on Thursday night in front of a raucous Prudential Center to take a 3-2 series lead.

The win allows them to complete the gentlemen’s sweep of their rivals on Saturday at 8 PM in game six at Madison Square Garden. A week ago, Devils fans left their home arena devastated. After compiling a franchise record 52 wins and 112 points in a surprising regular season, they’d been battered by the Blueshirts 5-1 in two straight games.

They were staring at the possibility of being swept out of the first round of the playoffs after waiting four seasons to get back there. That wouldn’t damper their future, of course. They have a budding young core led by captain Nico Hischier and superstar Jack Hughes, whose 99 points in the regular season set a franchise record. It would’ve been easy for them to give in to the Rangers’ skill and playoff experience.

Every move the front office made, highlighted by the acquisitions of Stanley Cup champions, albeit rental contracts and declining versions of Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane, showed they believed 2023 was their time to reach the top of the mountain. “The Devils’ time will come, but it’s not now,” a New Jersey fan said after game two. “I wasn’t confident entering this series because I knew what the Rangers had, and I don’t think we’re there yet.”

A week later, he couldn’t be more confident about what lies ahead and what’s in the present. “Tonight was New Jersey’s most comprehensive game. They can afford to sacrifice offense with the way they play. It’s playoff-style hockey, one that could go a long way.”

The Devils may have entered the series as the higher seed, but the pressure was on New York, who had their highly-paid stars in tow to pull through. But while they looked as if they’d embraced the time of year with blowout wins in the first two tilts, they’ve allowed themselves to be overwhelmed by the Devils and are 0-3 against rookie goaltender; Akira Schmid, who began the season in the AHL.

While he’s looked anything but a minor league netminder, posting a.975 save percentage since starting over Vitek Vanecek in game three, the Rangers have yet to do much to test the 22-year-old seriously. Trailing 3-0 entering the third period, you’d expect New York to give everything they had and fire shots from anywhere and everywhere toward the goal.

Yet when the final horn sounded, they’d been outshot 43-23 on the evening and 20-2 in the final stanza, with the lone tally of the frame being an Erik Haula empty-netter. “That’s not gonna cut it in probably any playoff series in this league,” forward Jimmy Vesey said. “Their goalie has been solid, but I don’t think he’s been tested enough. We have to find a way. That’s the bottom line.”

The bottom line is the team needs to admit to frustration and the need for adjustments. That’s what New Jersey did, and it’s worked. They’ve shown why they finished third overall in the regular season standings.

“At first, nerves and jitters got us, Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “You go back to Game 1; we didn’t handle the puck well. We talked about relaxing, and If you look at our puck play tonight, if you look at our breakouts, I think it was one of our best games in a long time.”

Tactically, they’ve stuck to the transition style of play that got them here with a few minor tweaks to bulk up the defensive end. Instead of their 2-1-2 zone, they switched to a 1-2-2 and put an extra forward back to clog up the neutral zone and stop the Rangers puck carriers from getting past the blue line or completing a cross-ice pass.

When the Blueshirts tried to dump and chase, the Devils kept their forwards to the perimeter and cleared the slot. That’s an area where Schmid has struggled to corral pucks, and the Rangers ranked 27th in offensive production during the regular season.
“We were a little too one and done. Adam Fox said “They capitalized on chances. They were just a step ahead of us.”

Akin to their quick start in game four, New Jersey didn’t take long to strike on the scoreboard. A Vincent Trocheck faceoff win incidentally turned into a shot on the net, which Igor Shesterkin stopped. However, the rebound popped out to Ondřej Palát, whose shot deflected off Fox’s stick and over Shesterkin’s head to give the Devils a quick 1-0 lead a mere 39 seconds into the contest. “The hockey gods were on our side,” Ruff said. “We got a little bit of puck luck.”

From there, New Jersey sat back and suffocated New York in the neutral zone, just as they did in game four. While the Rangers brought more physicality to their play, it wasn’t enough to bedevil the red-hot Devils. “I have no problem with our effort tonight”, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said. “The Devils played their best game of the series.”

Typically, you would hear a coach who called his team “lazy” after a 3-1 loss in game four, expand on that in a 4-0 defeat. But not Gallant. “I have no problem with the way we played. It was not like how I felt the other night.” Those positive comments echoed the sentiment around the locker room following a night that only got worse for the boys in blue.

THE “UNSPECIAL TEAMS”:
Through the first two games of the series, what particularly stood out on the Rangers’ side was the play of their special teams. They had successfully found Chris Kreider for his trademark deflection power-play goals on four of their first seven-man advantages. On the flip side, the penalty kill had gone 7 for 8, even limiting the Devils to no shots on goal in each of their four power plays in game one. But things changed midway through game three.

The turning point came with the Rangers leading 1-0 after Kreider’s first even-strength goal of the series 3:39 into the second period. The goal gave his team a lead against Akira Schmid, who was making his NHL playoff debut. Timo Meier landed on Igor Shesterkin, and the Rangers netminder responded by punching Meier and was penalized for it. At the other end of the play, Artemi Panarin and Kevin Bahl were boxed for roughing.

New Jersey wound up with the man advantage and cashed in when Jack Hughes netted his second of the series, putting his team on the board. That tally would prove to be the only special teams one of the game, as Schmid made 35 saves, the Rangers went 0 for 5 on the Power Play, and Dougie Hamilton scored the overtime winner, giving the Devils a lifeline which they haven’t let go of.

“I think we just lost the series,” a Rangers fan who was assumed at the time to be overreacting
but now deserves credit said. “The Devils have momentum, and if the Rangers don’t win game four, they will lose all the momentum, and it’s unlikely they’ll be able to get it back after that.”
If the Rangers want to give themselves a chance of doing so, they must convert on their man-advantage opportunities, which they have yet to do in their last 13 attempts.

The repeated failures are partly due to the Devils tying up Kreider in the slot, getting sticks in passing lanes, and blocking shots. But they’re also due to the Rangers being too predictable. Mika Zibanejad was back in his office, the left circle. Except while it worked last year in the postseason, en route to him accumulating 24 points in 20 games, and during the regular season, where he led the team with 20 power-play goals, it has yet to come to fruition in this series.

The center has often sent that shot wide, or Schmid has stopped it. So what did the Rangers do? They returned to it instead of putting their helmets together and trying something else.
The attempt backfired, as an Artemi Panarin turnover led to a New Jersey odd-man rush.

Dawson Mercer deposited Erik Haula’s one-timer feed for a shorthanded tally, extending New Jersey’s lead to 3-0 at 13:32 of the second period. The goal followed Haula scoring his first of two on the night, pouncing on a rebound off a Mercer point shot for a power-play marker 3:27 into the middle frame.

“Special teams, right?” Kreider said. “It’s something we had in our favor early in the series and didn’t go our way tonight. That’s got to be better. I think we did some of the things we talked about (more shots on net and getting pucks and bodies in front), but that’s hockey, unfortunately.” What’s also unfortunate is being eliminated from the playoffs, which can happen to the Rangers as early as Saturday night. However, if they play with passion and energy from the start, they may have a chance at forcing a game seven on Monday.