After losing to the Washington Capitals at home on Saturday, the New Jersey Devils needed a bounce-back game immediately. With their rivalry game against the Rangers on Monday, they made a statement with a 5-1 dominating win.
One core reason why the Devils won was their defense. The physical presence was there, as the Devils blocked 27 of the Rangers’ 39 shot attempts. Jesper Bratt, Jonathan Kovacevic, and Brendon Dillion each blocked four shots. Brett Pesce blocked three, all being on a Rangers powerplay early in the first period. As for hitting, the Devils called up Nathan Legare, and he had an excellent first game with six hits. Paul Cotter joined him, also with six hits.
If you are on social media as a Devils fan, whenever they play the Rangers, you’re probably aware of the clip of Ranger fans at MSG cheering that the Devils took Jack Hughes while the Rangers took Kaapo Kakko in the 2019 NHL Draft. Since that clip, Jack Hughes has played very well against Igor Shesterkin, scoring 11 goals against him in this matchup. Tonight, he scored two more goals, one being on the powerplay. Jack had a 3-point night.
However, Bratt had an even better night, with one goal and three assists. Dougie Hamilton scored a powerplay goal on a 5-on-3, and Luke Hughes scored two assists. Another player who needed a goal on Monday was Dawson Mercer because in the last few weeks, he hasn’t scored one goal at all, and thankfully for him, this was the perfect night to do it.
While most of the team needed the win, nobody needed it more than Jacob Markstrom; as in his last two games, Markstrom gave up a combined seven goals by both the St Louis Blues and the Capitals, while some of the goals he gave up were awful. Markstrom played well against a Rangers team with excellent shooters like Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, only giving up one goal to Chris Kreider on the powerplay. Overall, it was a solid game that the Devils won, one they needed over their divisional rival.