New Jersey Devils Need Revitalized Rivalry with New York Rangers
By Corey Spina
The New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers have the potential to be one of the best rivalries in the NHL, but with the Rangers looking to sweep the season series the rivalry has lost the luster it once possessed.
A lot of the problem has to do with the New Jersey Devils not making the playoffs for the past five years as that’s how huge rivalries build in the NHL. Even in the regular season the Rangers know they’re better than the Devils, they know they’re going to the playoffs, so the games don’t matter as much as they used to.
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The Devils fight for their playoff lives every year now and thus while the games have potential to have meaning the Devils are out of the race by the time these two teams meet.
Not as Many Meetings
A big part of it is not playing the Rangers six times a year like they used to and instead have played them four times a season since realignment. That’ll hurt any rivalry, but with the Devils not competing as much, it really hurts what could be a top-five rivalry in the NHL.
For years it was always the big matchup of Marty Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist loved playing against the Devils because he wanted to test himself against the greatness that was Brodeur. Now Lundqvist has more important games to rest for like Washington, Pittsburgh, the Islanders, and lets backup Antti Raanta play the games against the Devils.
It has nothing to do with Cory Schneider either. Lundqvist knows Schneider’s a great goalie, but it’s not worth his time and energy to play against the team in front of Schneider.
All Comes down to Winning
It all comes down to winning and losing and over the past five years since the Devils beat the Rangers in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals it’s been a lot of losing for the Devils.
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That was one of the best rivalry driven series’ of the decade that goes right up there with Penguins-Flyers, Penguins-Capitals, Blackhawks-Blues, Boston-Montreal, Sharks-Kings, the list goes on and on because a Devils-Rangers rivalry can potentially be one of the best rivalries in the NHL when both teams are winning.
That series, along with Penguins-Flyers series is what probably what got NBCSN to begin their Wednesday Night Rivalry games in the first place as they began the next season.
This is just another year of no playoffs for the Devils and while this season’s series with the Rangers won’t have meaningful games the Devils are on the upswing and hopefully sooner rather than later the Devils will start making the Rangers remember why they hated them so much in the first place.