After 60 minutes of relentless hockey from a team possessed, after three straight victories, one more impressive and decisive than the next, this is what we know five games into this Battle of the Hudson:
There is no quit in New Jersey.
The Rangers, on the other hand, we’ll find out if they can live up to their very own mantra when they take the Garden ice on Saturday facing Game 6 elimination following Thursday’s 4-0 paddy whacking at the Rock.
“Win one game,” Chris Kreider said. “The playoffs are comprised of highs and lows and we’re at a low point right now. If we can’t climb our way out of this, we don’t deserve to go on a deep run.
“Win one game.”
The roof is falling in on the marquee Rangers. They have scored two goals in the last three games — one goal in the last 127:57 — against freshman netminder Akira Schmid, who is turning himself into an instant folk hero. After scoring four power-play goals on their first seven opportunities, the Rangers have been blanked since the second period of Game 2.
That is not the worst of it, for while going 0-for-13 in the interim, the Blueshirts have yielded a pair of PPG’s to the Devils plus a shorthanded score in this one that seemed to break the Rangers.
Listen to this: Trailing 3-0 after the second period, the Rangers were outshot 20-2 in the third period. Twenty-to-two! Seems more like the time of day than results of a shot clock for an allegedly desperate team. They got a shot from Tyler Motte at 0:47. They got a shot from Vincent Trocheck at 13:27.
Good night and arrive home safely.
“Two goals in three games is not going to cut it in an playoff series in this league,” Jimmy Vesey said. “The goalie has been solid but I still don’t think we’ve tested him enough.”
You don’t say!
Mika Zibanejad was more urgent in the offensive zone but has still yet to score a goal in the series. Ditto for Artemi Panarin. Patrick Kane, who has one goal, was ineffective and bounced to Filip Chytil’s unit late in the second period in an exchange of places with Kaapo Kakko. Vlad Tarasenko, who scored in each of the first two games, was barely visible in this one. Alexis Lafreniere remains scoreless. Adam Fox has been negated by constant pressure.
The big boys have become shrink-wrapped.
Igor Shesterkin was the best Ranger by leaps and bounds. Try though he might, he can’t score, either, even though he did put one shot on goal in the second period and came out to the blue line to handle the puck in the third. Had the Blueshirts come close to the goaltender’s level, they would have made this a contest.
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“We have to keep a level head but of course we’re frustrated,” said Fox, who has Devils closing on him immediately whenever he attempts to carry the puck. “It’s the first to four [wins].
“We’ve been here before.”
Technically, yes. Last year’s team overcame two-game deficits against both Pittsburgh and Carolina before prevailing in a pair of Games 7. Last year’s team also lost four straight to Tampa Bay after taking the first two games of the conference finals.
This is not last year’s naive squad of which not all that much was expected. This team is carrying Great Expectations. They appear to be buckling under the weight.
The Devils got on the board 39 seconds into the match on a somewhat fluky goal scored by Ondrej Palat after a bout of miscommunication between Fox and Tarasenko following a defensive zone faceoff victory. So once again, the Blueshirts were chasing.
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Palat is a modern-day Rangers nemesis. He scored four goals for Tampa Bay in the 2015 conference finals. He scored three for the Lightning last year, including late winners in both Games 3 and 5. He has two goals this series. That adds up to nine in 17 contests.
Ah, 2015. One of the defining moments of that series came early in Game 2 when Dan Boyle’s pass banked off Marty St. Louis’ skates up near the blue line while the Rangers were on a two-man advantage. Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson swept in alone and beat Henrik Lundqvist in what became a 6-2 rout. After winning Game 1, the Blueshirts lost the final three at home while going down in seven.
Fast-forward eight years. Trailing 2-0, the Rangers were on the power play early in the second period when Fox’s pass bounced off Panarin about 15 feet inside the line. The Devils swept away on a two-on-one before the immensely impressive Dawson Mercer converted Erik Haula’s cross-ice feed to put it — and the Rangers — away.
All is not lost. There is a Game 6 coming up on Saturday.
That’s a guarantee.
That’s the only guarantee you’re going to get.