And with that, the First Round is finally over. The New Jersey Devils have officially cemented their place in the 2nd Round of the playoffs as they DESTROYED the New York Rangers 4-0 in Game 7, setting up a matchup with the Hurricanes in the next round.
I don’t think there was really any doubt how this series would go after Game 5.
The New Jersey Devils have wrapped up the First Round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs with a resounding 4-0 victory over their archrivals, the New York Rangers, to win the series 4-3 after originally being down 2-0, capping off one of the most entertaining rounds in NHL playoff history. And, I mean it wholeheartedly.
To have a great playoff season, you need to have two things happen at the same time: shocking upset victories and intense, heated rivals going 6-7 games.
Thankfully, that has happened down to a tee in just the first round as we’ve seen the Florida Panthers beat the all-powerful Boston Bruins, the Seattle Kraken shocking the reigning SC champions Colorado Avalanche, the Maple Leafs went 6 games with the Lightning to break their 19-year playoff drought, the Oilers needed 6 games to prevail against the Kings, and now the Devils have broken their own 11-year playoff drought in 7 games against their most hated foes in the Rangers.
Unfortunately, for all neutrals and definitely for Rangers fans, Game 7 was a rather boring game as the Devils opened up with the fury of the Devil himself and never let up.
Despite actually getting outshot (31 vs. 24) in the game, the Devils were the far superior team as they had 10X as many “Grade A” chances than the Rangers, they forechecked the Rangers defenders into oblivion (20 Rangers giveaways), they had a devastating offense as they scored 9 goals in the last 3 games, and the Rangers simply couldn’t solve Akira Schmid.
Putting aside the Devils fantastic, multi-line scoring offense, the Devils defense and goaltender Akira Schmid won the Devils this series after going down 2-0.
Schmid has won all 4 games (Game 2, 3, 5, 7), he only lost a single matchup against the Rangers (Game 6), he averaged an incredible .951 SV% and 1.38 GAA on 142 shots against, he is one of the only two goalies (Stars’ Jake Oettinger is the other) to earn a shutout, he’s the only goalie to have multiple shutouts this postseason, and he’s saved 135 of the 142 shots he faced.
Meanwhile, the Devils defense of Dougie Hamilton (1 G, 2 A, 3 PTS, -1 +/-), John Marino (0 G, 2 A, 2 PTS, 0 +/-), Damon Severson (0 G, 2 A, 2 PTS, -2 +/-), Jonas Siegenthaler (1 G, 1 A, 2 PTS, +1 +/-), Kevin Bahl (0 G, 1 A, 1 PTS, 0 +/-), and Ryan Graves (0 G, 1 A, 1 PTS, +1 +/-) averaged a collective 2.43 GAA (2nd best in the postseason), averaged .918 SV% (6th best in the postseason), had 194 shots against (7th best in the postseason), 17 goals against (5th best in the postseason), and contributed to 2 shutouts (best in the postseason).
Sure, a lot of these defensive stats are down to Schmid’s brilliance, but this was a defense that gave up 10 goals in the opening two games yet finished the 1st Round averaging in the Top-10 best of all important defensive categories. It just goes to show how a great/in-form goaltender can revitalize a defense, and vice versa.
As for the Devils forwards, they really just had to do their jobs and sneak 2-3 past Igor Shesterkin (3 W, .931 SV%, 1.96 GAA, saved 189/203 shots, 0 shutouts) and they would win the game.
And that’s exactly what they did with Erik Haula (4 G, 2 A, 6 PTS), Nico Hischier (0 G, 5 A, 5 PTS), Ondrej Palat (2 G, 3 A, 5 PTS), Jack Hughes (2 G, 3 A, 5 PTS), and Jesper Bratt (1 G, 3 A, 4 PTS) led the way scoring, but the rest of the roster steeped up as well with 15/21 skaters registering at least one point. It was a dogged, determined offensive effort that all great Lindy Ruff teams feature.
Reversely, the Rangers were anything but dogged and determined.
Aside from Shesterkin, Chris Kreider (6 G, 3 A, 9 PTS), there wasn’t really any other player who stepped up and delivered outside of the opening two games. Sure, Patrick Kane (1 G, 5 A, 6 PTS), Vladimir Tarasenko (3 G, 1 A, 4 PTS), Mika Zibanejad (1 G, 3 A, 4 PTS), Adam Fox (0 G, 8 A, 8 PTS, 0 +/-), and Filip Chytil (1 G, 3 A, 4 PTS) scored some points, but most of those points were in the opening four games.
Kane went scoreless in Games 5-7, Chytil scored just 1 of his 4 points in Game 5-7, Zibanejad scored all of his points in just three games (GM. 1, GM. 3, and GM. 6), Tarasenko scored his points only the Rangers blowout victories (GM. 1, GM. 2, GM. 6), and Fox had six of his 8 assists in the opening two games. That’s not good enough for a team looking to win the Stanley Cup.
I’m not saying these players had to score 3 points in every single game, but they should have been more active in the Rangers losses and the later few games of the series to have given New York a chance to win. But, at least these guys weren’t as bad as Artemi Panarin.
There’re really no words to describe how awful the 11.5M dollar man (yes, he’s making that much money) was as he only registered…2 assists across 7 games in which his team scored a combined 17 goals. Just 2 assists! And they both came in Game 1, which was probably the easiest game the Rangers faced in the series.
I’d imagine a lot of changes are coming for the Rangers given how Kane, Tarasenko, K’Andre Miller, Alexis Lafrenière, and Tyler Motte are all set to be free agents at the end of the season, and the average age of the roster is 28, but I’d be shocked if rumors about the Rangers moving on from Panarin don’t muster if he has another playoff performance like this one.
In seven playoff appearances with the Blackhawks, Blue Jackets, and Rangers, he’s only made it out of the First Round twice, he’s only made it out of the First Round with the Rangers once (last season), he’s only had two postseasons of scoring 8 or more points (2018-19, 2021-22), and he’s scored just 46 points in 57 games (.801 PPG percentage).
That’s not bad for someone like Tarasenko, Kreider, or Zibanejad, but that’s woeful for someone as talent and making as much money as Panarin.
Whew, what a round of hockey we were treated to.
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