Jittery New Jersey Devils Caught Flat-Footed, Fall to Rangers in Game 1

This wasn’t the start they or anyone else envisioned, but the New Jersey Devils find themselves already trailing in their first round, best-of-7 series against the New York Rangers after a 5-1 thumping in Game 1. The team squandered two power plays in the game’s first nine minutes, leading to the Devils taking fewer shots on goal (1) than the Rangers had goals (2).

Meanwhile, their rivals only needed 16 seconds of power play time to cash in on their first man advantage of the night. That was where the game was lost or won, depending on how one looks at things – and the power play finished 0-4 with zero shots on goal.

“I don’t believe we were at our best today, you can look at the reasons, but that’s the bottom line,” New Jersey’s Erik Haula told the media after the loss. “We had a lot of jitters going into the game. It was a great atmosphere – but the start wasn’t what we wanted. We had great opportunities and early power plays, and we just couldn’t get started. There are always jitters. It’s just how you handle them,” added Haula. “I think we learned a little bit of a lesson, and we’ll be fine going forward.”

The Devils found their legs and calmed down after about ten minutes. They started to get chances and started to have consecutive and effective shifts. But they were unable to find any puck luck around the crease of Rangers’ netminder Igor Shesterkin. This was a team that would sometimes accumulate 15 shots in the first period of games, but in Game 1, New Jersey had a total of 15 shots after two periods – and they trailed 3-0.

“It’s not the start we wanted. They get an early goal after a couple of missed power plays (by us) – it’s a momentum swing,” said Devils defenseman Ryan Graves. “That’s not the way you want to start the playoffs. We had our chances. You can’t say it was lopsided. We had our chances, they had their chances, and they scored on theirs. We didn’t.”

New York was blocking a lot of shots as well, and it was evident that they had planned to be very active and aggressive in trying to steal Game 1 on the road. They finished with 23 blocked shots, and countless deflected passes. The Devils finished the game with just 12 blocked shots.

The Rangers would add a goal in the third period to make it 4-0 before Jack Hughes scored the lone goal for New Jersey on a penalty shot – Hughes is only the fourth NHL player ever to score his first playoff goal on a penalty shot, joining Nic Dowd (Capitals, 2019), Mike Richards, (Flyers, 2008), Wayne Connelly (North Stars, 1968). New York would add an empty net goal to make the final score 5-1; defenseman Adam Fox finished the game with four assists, and Chris Kreider had two power-play goals.

This team has shown the ability to bounce back from bad games or losses all season. The most recent example was two weeks ago when they were steamrolled by the Jets in Winnipeg, only to return home to torch the Penguins and Blue Jackets in blowout fashion. While the Rangers are a completely different animal than those teams, this Devils team can overcome this Game 1 debacle and is already looking toward Game 2.

“We’ve done it all year long. Whenever people doubt us, that’s when you see our best game,” Haula told Pucks & Pitchforks minutes after the game ended. “We’re already focused on Game 2, we’ll make some adjustments going into that one, and we’ll be looking for a better effort.”

Coach Lindy Ruff didn’t discuss any lineup changes just yet ahead of Game 2, but it feels inevitable that maybe Brendan Smith (toughness) and Yegor Sharangovich (offense) could draw in for the rematch on April 20. Perhaps, this kind of loss is better to have now – get it out of the system – and the team will settle into what we all expect will be a long series.

“I’m not sure the right way to describe it, but there’s something in our group,” added Graves. “We’re not going to worry about the outside noise. We need to look inward and find a way to be better. We’ve found a way to win a lot of games all year against good teams, so we’re capable of it. We just need to regroup and have a better effort.”