The New Jersey Devils needed this one. They destroyed the New York Rangers, one of the hottest teams to start the NHL season. They scored seven goals on the duo of Dylan Garand and Spencer Martin, but the Rangers only got on one past Nico Daws. The Devils' 7-1 victory erases a lot of what the early-season blues brought to this roster.
It was a true domination of the Hudson River Rivalry. It wasn’t from start to finish, however, as the team didn’t really have a shot in the first 10-ish minutes of the game. They finally started rolling and even got a 5v3 power play for a full two minutes, but the Rangers killed that without allowing a shot.
It seemed like the Rangers’ magic would continue, but it didn’t. J.T. Miller made a mistake with less than a minute left in the first period: his pass fluttered off his stick in the defensive zone and landed on Evan Rodrigues' stick.
Rodrigues sniped one past Dylan Garand, and the Devils went into the first intermission with the lead. For years, the Devils were known to give up a goal in the final minute of a period before intermission. Now, it looks like they might be reversing the trend.
It didn’t take long to expand the lead. Luke Hughes throws a puck towards the net about 15 seconds into the second period. It goes off Adam Fox, and it slides through the five hole.
And the race was on.
In the end, Stefan Noesen, Nico Hischier, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Luke Hughes all continued to score, finishing with seven goals total. Hughes’s second goal was insane, skating around a defender and scoring off the post.
The Devils can not move forward with their season after the dominant win
The Devils can erase all the bad feelings that came from the season so far. The 6-0 loss? Out of sight, out of mind. The mismatched performance against the Utah Mammoth? It doesn’t matter. The 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators? It’s unimportant at this point.
The Devils still have some moves to make in the NHL standings. They are 4-3, which is a decent record after just seven games. They are figuring out the goaltending situation, and they are implementing a bunch of new forwards into the lineup. However, for one night, none of that mattered. Even without Luke Evangelista, the Devils put on a dominant offensive performance.
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