Almost a month into the season and a storied rivalry renews on November 18th at 7PM EST as the New Jersey Devils host the first place New York Rangers. This is the first of four meetings between the two teams and first since game 7 of the first round of last year’s playoffs. These two teams have been trending in opposite directions, as the Rangers are on a 10 game point streak while the Devils have lost three of the last four contests as of writing this. But all bets are off when it comes to this matchup and if we learned anything from last year, momentum from the games prior means very little. But let’s preview how this matchup might play out:
New York Rangers Projected Lines
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Bonino-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Miller-Trouba
Lindgren-Gustafsson
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Yes, you read that right. I fully believe that both Ryan Lindgren and Igor Shesterkin will be active on Saturday. Shesterkin has been out with a lower body injury since November 2nd, but it seems as if he hasn't been missed. Jonathan Quick has turned back the clock and is having a mini resurgence late in his career and arguably has played better than his Russian counterpart this year. while another offseason addition in Erik Gustafsson has been the unsung hero of this Rangers blue line.
The heartbeat of this team so far has been the second line. Artemi Panarin has been a Hart Trophy caliber player thus far this season tallying a point in every game this year. Vincent Trocheck has been all over the ice the past few games both offensively and defensively. Alexis Lafreniere is finally living up to expectations and has been firing on all cylinders. This line gets going and the Rangers are a tough team to beat.
New Jersey Devils Projected Lines
Meier-Hughes-Bratt
Toffoili-Mercer-Holtz
Palat-Haula-Nosek
Bastian-McLeod-Lazar
Hughes-Hamilton
Seigenthaler-Marino
Bahl-Smith
Vanacek
Schmid
A couple key changes for New Jersey here, none more important than the imminent return of Jack Hughes. Prior to his injury, Hughes led the league in scoring with 20 points over 10 games. This gives the Devils one of their two centers back, as Nico Hischier has yet to resume skating. The Devils just are not as dynamic without Hughes, and it showed over the last three games. This also drops McLeod back to the bottom six where he is more comfortable, and the powerplay will get new life injected into it.
Defensively, Lindy Ruff shuffled the pairings moving Luke Hughes up to the top pair with Dougie Hamilton. This gives the devils a highly offensive pairing and puts pressure on the Rangers, but leaves them open to odd man rushes as neither player are considered to be defensive defensemen. Meanwhile, Jonas Seigenthaler drops down to the second pair with John Marino to form more of a shutdown pairing, similar to graves and Severson last year, while Kevin Bahl joins Brendan Smith on the bottom pairing. Giving the pairing a couple games to get used to one another prior to the matchup with the Rangers will be important to find success.
X-Factors
The Devils X-Factor will come down to one thing: goaltending. The goaltending has been subpar so far this year for the most part, whether it be from Vitek Vanacek or Akira Schmid. Vanacek has the third lowest save percentage for high danger unblocked shots in the entire league. If the devils goaltending struggles, I don’t see them winning this game. On a smaller note, the Devils have to get started early. Through 13 games, the Devils have only had the lead through 20 minutes twice in the first 13 contests, while the Rangers have only trailed three times through 14 games after one period.
For the Rangers, their X-Factor is going to be slowing the game down. They can’t keep up with the Devils speed, so they need to have controlled entries out of the defensive zone. The Devils have had great success forechecking and forcing mistakes behind the net. I’m having controlled zone exits, New Jersey has been prone to getting a bit too aggressive and this could allow for odd man rushes for the Blue Shirts. As previously mentioned, the Devils give up a lot of high danger goals, and this could be a key to the Rangers success.
Overall, these matchups are always one to watch by fans across the league. The Rangers likely have the edge on paper, but that’s why they play the game. The Devils will likely open as home underdogs, somewhere in the +125 range on the money line, while the Rangers should open in the -150 range. Nonetheless, this game is more than just one of 82 on the schedule, it’s a battle for local supremacy.
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