Adam Armbrecht went blow by blow through two plus periods to give a live sense of how game one unfolded for the New Jersey Devils.
Unfortunately this was not the playoff start the Devils hoped for. The team skated fast and drew penalties early but couldn’t not convert power play opportunities.
The Rangers baited the Devils into a physical game that pulled them away from their core strengths and found easy neutral zone passes and plenty of shot pockets throughout.
12 Comments
In reality devils have very low chance beating the rangers. Rangers if kane wasn’t injured would be the the team with the most depth in nhl, and devils have zero structure at all. Rangers overall a better team, and out of devils players the only one actually interesting to watch is hughes.
Playoffs different than regular season, and devils aren’t made for playoffs at all there coach is an ex ranger vice coach for rangers that got fired because he couldn’t get rangers i to playoffs
10 players who've never played in a playoff game got the first one under their belt. There were jitters and just a complete lack of missed assignments. Leaving Kreider alone uncovered when PP goals are his bread and butter is just a complete lack of self awareness. Let Kane try to beat the goalie if you have to pick between the two. This is what happened when they played Tampa in the first game and they came out looking a lot different in game 2. They will make adjustments. Move Timo up to one of the top 2 lines, Wood needs to sit, he adds nothing to the bottom pair. I'd much rather have Lazar. They also should play Luke Hughes. Brock Faber is playing for The Wild and you burn that year of ELC regardless. He can handle it.
Both teams have better road records this season than home which probably has something to do with the devils bad start
I know the playoffs are a completely different animal. But if I'm Lindy, I'm reminding them that this is the same team they beat 3 times in the regular season. Like I said, I know playoffs are on another level. But it felt like the Devils got in their head and were overwhelmed by the moment and all the chatter about playoff experience
Devils need to run some Oklahoma drills in practice until they get used to throwing the body against the Rangers. Only way they’re gonna have a chance in this series.
Start planning the eulogy boys!
Mercer writes an open letter asking for the fans to show up. We did our part, where were y'all? Let's go boys, even it up!
To say the devils dominated any portion of this game is a delusional take
Special teams was atrocious in game 1.
Cope
Devils were playing perimeter hockey getting low %age shots. 0 SOGS on 4 PP's. If they can't compete they'll be making tee times a week from now. There were no positive takeaways from game 1 so get real. The Rock is a home game for the NYR's. I don't think you will see as many Devil fans at MSG as you do Ranger fans at the Rock