The New Jersey Devils defeated the New York Rangers in Round 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs on Monday night. Akira Schmid was more than solid in net for New Jersey as he saved the 31 shots that came his way, earning his second career playoff shutout. The Devils won the game 4-0 and won the series 4-3. Finally, we can get all of that blue out of the Prudential Center.
On the road again…
The Devils have a new challenge on the horizon as they are set to square off with the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2. Carolina (113 points) finished one point ahead of the Devils (112 points) in the Metropolitan Division, which is crucial now as the Hurricanes open the series with home-ice advantage.
See you soon, @Canes.
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) May 2, 2023
This should be fun. pic.twitter.com/Jbf7svHwa5
The Devils, however, have earned the nickname “road warriors” as they finished with a 28-9-4 away record during the regular season. New Jersey went 2-1 in Madison Square Garden in the first round, winning Games 3 and 4 and dropping Game 6. Winning two games on the road to even the series was the spark of confidence the Devils needed. The kids seem to thrive in hostile environments.
The Devils opened the playoffs 0-2, as it seemed they were trying to match the Rangers’ physicality instead of playing their style of hockey. New Jersey was also committing too many penalties, which is still an issue, and an even bigger issue when you can’t kill the power plays. The Rangers were dominating their power play which led to four of their 10 goals in games one and two. Eventually, New Jersey was able to find the right technique in killing the power play as the Rangers went 1/15 in Games 3 through 7.
The Rangers’ forecheck was really messing up New Jersey’s rhythm as well as the Devils had trouble getting into the offensive zone. In Games 1 and 2, the Devils had a combined 52 shots on goal compared to the Rangers’ 53, but the shots weren’t anything that would make Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin sweat.
After Game 2 though, New Jersey really flipped the script. Something changed mentally as New Jersey brought out the real Devil in them. Head coach Lindy Ruff put 22-year-old Schmid in the net, and he has been lights out ever since. He let in five Game 6, however, the Rangers were throwing shots at him as the Devils did not have their strongest game defensively. Schmid bounced back in Game 7.
Veteran forward Erik Haula leads the Devils in playoff points right now with six. Who expected that? Haula also leads the Devils in playoff goals with four. Haula has really stepped up to bat this postseason as he knew he needed to help out the Devils’ young roster.
Some guys you would like to see on the score sheet are Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. Meier is scoreless through his first series with the Devils, and Bratt has one goal that went into an empty net in garbage time of Game 7. Even though Meier has not been finding the back of the net, his physicality has been elite. Yes, the Devils brought Meier in to score goals, but he has been contributing in other ways. Bratt has had some looks but failed to capitalize thus far (except for the empty net goal), yet, his speed and puck control still creates scoring chances for the team.