Little brother syndrome. Rempe's property. The true Prudential Center home team. Rent free. These are just some of the "insults" New York Rangers fans have slung at New Jersey Devils fans on social media. The rivalry seems to be alive and well, but if you ask Rangers fans directly, they pretend that there are bigger fish to fry.
They attempt to tell a story of history with the New York Islanders, or they look for another more recent rival like the Florida Panthers, who knocked them out of the playoffs this season. There are excuses about the Devils not mattering to them.
Yet, despite literally sweeping the season series in pretty embarrassing fashion for Devils fans, the Rangers fans still consider the Devils their biggest rival. The Hudson River Rivalry is not only the biggest rivalry in this area, it might be the biggest rivalry in the Metropolitan Division. The Pittsburgh Penguins used to have the two biggest rivalries, one with the Philadelphia Flyers and another with the Washington Capitals. Both of those have fallen off precipitously. They have been replaced by Devils-Rangers in venom.
A recent survey by The Athletic directed at Rangers fans found that just about half of them (49% to be exact) claim the Devils to be their biggest rival. About 38% think it's their in-state rivals the Islanders, and the rest split between the Bruins, Flyers, and Penguins.
There's a good reason for the rivalry. One year ago, the Devils took out the Rangers in Game 7 of the first round after that team went all in. They traded for Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane, but neither helped them win a playoff series. The Devils dominated that Game 7, and Jacob Trouba tried to help by knocking opponents' heads off with... ahem... dirty hits.
Just last year, the Devils were the biggest victim of the Matt Rempe disasterclass. He injured Jonas Siegenthaler with a clearly dirty hit, and he already had a history with the Devils, getting kicked out of a game for a hit on Nathan Bastian. Rempe had been kicked out of three total games against the Devils, with the third coming from fighting Kurtis MacDermid to kick off their last game.
Even Rangers blog Forever Blueshirts agrees with the sentiment, calling the Devils the Rangers biggest rival. They point out the playoff history, including 1994 and 2012, something the Rangers haven’t had much of recently with any other rivals.
So, sorry Rangers fans. We are your biggest rival, and you are ours. This isn't Devils fans spending our every waking moment thinking about the team in Manhattan, this is a team who's basement is more famous than the ice it sits on trying not to think of the team that calls the greatest state in this nation home.