Devils Humiliated By Rangers On The Road 6-1
By Phil DeHaven
Having ended a 6-game losing streak via a shootout victory last night, the New Jersey Devils made the short trip to Madison Square Garden tonight to try to take down the 2014-2015 Metropolitan Division Champion New York Rangers. Cory Schneider got the start after sitting in favor of Keith Kinkaid who played very well last night in the win vs. Montreal. While the post-season fates of both teams has already been decided, tonight’s game is still important to both teams as it begins the first game of a home-and-home series and is yet another chapter in the cross-river rivalry.
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Perhaps the most telling stat that describes how successful this season has been for each team is the fact that Rangers forward
Rick Nashcame into tonight’s game with 41 goals while the Devils leader in points (
Adam Henrique) has 41 points.
The first period would start with New Jersey registering 5 of the first 6 shots on goal, but that was about the only positive the Devils could take away from this period. The Rangers would have their way with the Devils in the first and Rick Nash would be the one to get the scoring started for New York. Nash deflected a shot from Mats Zuccarello past Schneider for his 42nd goal of the season which would give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The play should’ve been called offsides, but ultimately it probably wouldn’t have prevented the Rangers from scoring as much as they did tonight.
Things would soon turn ugly as Keith Yandle and Dominic Moore scored 25 seconds apart to make it 3-0 Rangers and chase Cory Schneider from the game. The final stat line would be ugly for Schneider as he gave up three goals on 6 shots in just 12:24. The Devils would go on to out-shoot the Rangers 13-8 in the first, but the damage was done as New York would take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.
The second period saw the Devils have plenty of chances to cut into the 3-0 deficit, but they were unable to find a way to beat Henrik Lundqvist. The Devils received a power-play late in the second and got caught deep in the Rangers zone. With four Devils committed deep, Rick Nash forced an Eric Gelinas turnover and sprung Derek Stephan on a breakaway who was able to beat Kinkaid for a shorthanded goal with just 2.7 seconds left to make it 4-0.
Apr 4, 2015; New York, NY, USA; New Jersey Devils goaltender Cory Schneider (35) is replaced by goaltender Keith Kinkaid (1) after Schneider gave up three goals on six shots in the first period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers got a fortunate deflection on a Derek Brassard shot that somehow found its way past Kinkaid after hitting Adam Larsson. The goal made it a whopping 5-0 Rangers, but things would still get worse for New Jersey. Ryan McDonagh took a shot from the point with 8:00 left in the game which was deflected by Dominic Moore for his second goal of the game and increased the Ranger lead to 6-0.
The Devils were able to snag a consolation prize goal after Tuomo Ruutu took a shot that looked to be deflected by Jacob Josefson and got past Henrik Lundqvist to make it 6-1.
The Devils would go on to lose 6-1 and they never really had a shot at winning this one. To be fair to Cory, the third goal he let up to Dominic Moore wasn’t his fault but I don’t blame Lou for taking him out to protect him. Ken Daneyko summed up tonight’s game pretty accurately after New York Scored their 5th goal tonight. “Everything has been going wrong for the Devils while everything has been going right for the Rangers tonight.”
Tonight’s game was embarrassing and it doesn’t matter who started in net because the difference in skill between these two teams was incredibly evident by the final score. The Devils have now only scored Lets hope the Devils put up a better performance on Tuesday night, otherwise things could get ugly again only this time at the Rock.