Post Game Thread: New York Rangers at New Jersey Devils – 20 Apr 2023

47 comments

1. I’ve watched almost every minute from the other playoff games this year, and I’ve obsessed over playoff hockey the past decade when the Devils were a non factor. One thing that a lot of successful teams to is create screens in front of the goalie and tip pucks. This only works if you’re able to cycle down low for a while, and work the puck up high to your defensemen (this is the low-to-high play Sal references a lot). Then your defensemen have to actually get shots through the myriad of guys trying to block the shot. It’s so simple yet has subtle techniques needed to make it effective. I don’t want to see the Devils abandon the offensive strategy that got them here, but if nothing is working you need to play that meat and potatoes hockey that actually works for successful playoff teams. The Avalanche finally broke through on the Kraken with this simple play, then bam they got a second goal on the rush shortly after. Keep it simple boys and get shots through. I’m looking directly at you Douggie Hamilton, this is your specialty and where the FUCK have you been?

2. I hurt so bad.

3. Can’t wait to bet on the next game for a devils win. Boys know how to play from behind. Something will click.

4. I’ve been convinced that this team has reached its maximum potential under Ruff since February. Adding Meier didn’t move the needle. They had enough talent to keep forcing wins, but no chemistry or dominant team play to speak of. Now that the Rangers only need to focus on Ruff’s system, it is being dismantled.

   The Rangers came prepared, and Ruff has no answers.

5. miles wood should be in Utica- brendan smith should be unemployed. What are we doing here? Benching seigs is inexcusable guys been a rock all season.

   14 shots through 2 is just abysmal. Nico/Jack/Timo/Bratt completely silent. Dougie has been DREADFUL, can’t even hit the net. Totally outworked, totally outplayed. Playing like we’re just “happy to be here”. Very disappointing.

6. Did we abandon how we play during the regular season or did the rangers figure out how to entirely shut us down? Because I think the rangers are executing a perfect game plan while we struggle to play basic fundamentals. Our stars are invisible and our coaching is in capable of making adjustments or settling the team down. Hamilton bratt Palat Mercer all invisible out there

7. 1. Schmid needs to start on Saturday. Love you VV but 9 GA in 2 games isn’t good enough to earn another start.
   2. Siegenthaler in; Smith out. Change the defensive pairings if you need to… put Bahl back with Hamilton and Siegs with Severson or something.
   3. Wood does not get to play the rest of this series for taking 2 bone-headed offensive zone penalties in 2 games that cost us soul-crushing goals against.
   4. Lazar goes in for Wood. We traded for him for a reason, let’s go.
   5. We stop being so fucking passive on the PK and we actually practice defending against Kreider just standing next to our goalie.
   6. We need to start understanding how to play to get around the Rangers clogging up all the ice. We can still use our speed, but we need the coaching staff to actually coach and counter what the Rangers are doing instead of this team spinning its wheels even harder and going nowhere.
   7. In general, our defense and overall team defensive play needs to tighten the fuck up and sacrifice more.

   It’d be one thing if we barely made the playoffs and were being blown out by a far better team, like when we went against Tampa a few years ago.

   Devils right now are showing they have no fucking clue what is going on in the playoffs or how to handle it. This is just flat out pathetic and shockingly bad.

8. Just got home and I’m still fuming. Best of seven, I still have some inkling of hope, but what an awful end to the season this would be.

   All of our regular season problems have just been completely magnified in this series. None of this is new.

9. There is a man on the subway platform who keeps on saying the Devils lost because it’s 4/20.

   And we let the Rags win because it’s 4/20.

   I would like whatever he is smoking, but in edible form, please.

10. This is 100% on the coaching. The players look absolutely lost out there. Lindy knows how to bring out the best in players, help them play to their potential and during the season their talent overwhelmed the opposition. Now their talent isn’t enough to overcome a team who has obviously prepared every day to take them on. The system doesn’t work. Period. Then the lack of adjustments on special teams, the inability to generate any offense, broken rushes, forecheck that is out worked, it’s all falling apart. The individual talent isn’t enough to overcome a composed team working a plan to counter our strengths. There needs to be battle plan from the coaching staff and there isn’t one.

    That said, I will never ever call it over till it’s over and I will believe in and support this team till the bitter end. We’ve done this before. It is possible to come back from this. Right now, the coaching staff needs to come up with something. Something had a to inspire the guys like Bratt, Tatar, Nico, Jack, Palat to step up. There must be a plan they can execute and there must be way to give them the confidence to get it done. These last two games were devastating. But I still believe. I’ll always believe.

11. What happened to our defensemen completing a simple pass?

12. The lady behind me kept calling Kreider by his whole name of Christopher James Kreider and it was freaking me out

13. Totally outmatched. I’m not gonna say it’s over but I mean wow. Every possession and every pursuit to the puck we are getting beat. Gonna be very hard to climb back in this one

14. Personally I’m blaming mustache girl commercials.

15. Sigh, not like this. It’s not just that we’re getting embarrassed…it’s that we’re getting embarrassed by the RANGERS. All our Rangers friends/family are going to be insufferable.

    CUT MY LIFE INTO PIECES.

16. I don’t care if I get downvoted for this, so hear me out: I completely understand that everyone is upset, frustrated, disappointed, etc. with our team. I turned the game off before the whole fight thing happened at the end because I didn’t want to watch anymore. However, those 20+ players are the same ones who you scream and jump up and down for when they score a goal. We love our teams when they win, and scorn them when they lose. This has definitely not been our week so far, but think about one of our Devils pulling up this thread and reading some of the comments on here. Picture Jesper seeing someone comment that they’ve never seen him play worse than he did tonight, or Vitek reading all of the comments about how awful he’s been and how he should be replaced by Blackwood. There was aa recent instagram post that said “in order to bounce back we need you to have our back”. They know that we’re disappointed, but being disappointed is one thing. Saying that the Devils suck and that they never deserved to be in the playoffs is uncalled for. In my opinion, if you say and believe that, you never truly were a Devils fan. All I’m saying is think about every one of our guys in that locker room right now. Think about how tired and defeated they feel. Think of how ashamed they felt when at their home rink, “Devils suck” was being chanted at them. Losing two games in a row would already have your spirits low, but knowing that your fan base thinks your team is a joke and has no faith in you? If you were in their shoes, why would you want to try harder at all? The majority of your fans think you’ll lose anyway. This is why no matter how upset you are with the box score, find the good in their game and post those comments instead of the negative ones. Make sure that they know that we do and always will have their back. Thanks for reading, and Nico I love you

17. Many analysts spoke of how this Devils team was lacking experienced when it came to playoff hockey and how it may hurtvthem. I didn’t buy into it, at least I didnt think it would be a problem facing the Rags in the 1st round. However,I think it’s really showing in a lot of different areas that it is giving the Devils issues. I feel like regardless of the outcome of this series, this Devils team is well on their way to getting the ultimate prize for many years to come. This is all part of the learning process. I’m not giving up but if they don’t change something then this will be a quick 4 and out.

18. Boy I know no one wants to hear it right now, but before the playoffs started, I said that even if we get swept by the rangers, this season was a success, and I stand by it. This is I think the 2nd youngest team in the league still? We’re learning a lot of lessons. Lessons are hard to learn in the NHL. We still have a long ways to go, but god damn have we come so far.

19. This has been just so upsetting and embarrassing. I actually can’t believe how bad we look from top to bottom, just have completely abandoned every good habit created during the season. I normally would find a way to put a positive spin on going down 2-0, but man I really can’t think of anything. I have no idea what else to say at this point. Guess we just have to hope for no sweep

20. Just got home from the game. Boy am i upset family but if we can get the next one in the garden a 2-1 series is a whole new ball game..

21. Vitek got the yips and it started in game 1 on the 3rd Rags goal when he was up against the post and instead of staying pinned against it he saw the puck coming towards his face and ducked out of the way. Every time the Rags shoot at him he ducks. Schmid or Blackwood should have started game 2.

22. If you were the guys in section 107, row 4, you guys were absolute morons. Probably the dumbest and most obnoxious Devil fans I have encountered.

23. Telling myself this is just like how we started the regular season and we’re gonna get going here (I am only partly delusional)

24. Welp, some of yall wanted this matchup, you got it. No excuse to be clowned around at home for 2 straight. None. Then again if the Panthers were the opponent they’d probably get bitched out these 1st 2 games too.

    Bench Vitek(and others) for the rest of the series. Since you can’t fire a coach in a series I want Ruff out this offseason. Gone.

25. I would have rather missed the playoffs than go through the past three days.

26. We are launching our massive rocket into space, watching it blow up into a million pieces and saying, “well, we’re learning a lot”.

    I know I am.

27. We suffered through a 10 year long rebuild for this. I hate this team so fucking much.

28. Catching a Rags fan call into WFAN on my drive home gloating about us losing after “running our mouth all season” feels bad man. He ain’t wrong but it still feels bad

29. The rangers still suck. Somehow, the devils managed to suck 5 times worse two games in a row. Need to turn this shit around. I say run Schmid the Kid on saturday, i know its not on vitek but it would change the game a lil

30. Fuck

31. Just got home from the game. That ranks among the most disappointing live games I’ve ever been to. The first period was okay, but the rest of the game was the most invisible I’ve seen our team look all season. I couldn’t tell you one player that stood out in a positive way. Beat to every puck. Getting outmanned on the boards every time. Sloppy passes. Falling down for no reason. Getting shots blocked. No creativity, not flash, no skill. Fucking nothing.

    It’d be one thing if we were playing the way we did all season and the Rangers were just beating us at our game. It would be disappointing, but I could accept that they were just better. But they aren’t fucking better. We are a better team, we just are skating around like soulless husks and letting them do whatever they want out there. The team I watched in the 2nd and 3rd period tonight bore no resemblance to the team that finished 3rd in the league in the regular season. Mind boggling the way everyone was just going through the motions and showing no passion or will to win.

    It’s a best of 7, as I reminded many asshole Ranger fans on the way out, and I’m not a fucking doomer. I will be watching the next 2 games and fully believe we can come back. But we have to show up to MSG as a different team if we are going to do that. The way we have played games 1 and 2 does not cut it. Lindy, Brunette, and the rest need to step up with a better fucking game plan, a better line-up, and the vets need to hold people accountable here.

32. This douchebag ranger fan in my section got kicked out and it was fucking glorious fuck the rangers see you on saturday we just need 1

33. Listen… its been a long time since we have been to the playoffs but I have seen plenty of series that can change. Devils need to go into the Garden and take 2 games. The Devils can do this. We have seen them do this all year. Time to put up or shut up. And send Miles Wood to the moon!

34. Their fans are legit insufferable.

35. Not at all worried about going into the league’s worst arena and playing our best game of the season.

    I am worried about Lindy Ruff doing something incredibly stupid with the lineup.

36. Devils in 6

37. I love our team so much I hope next game we bounce back. They are so young and are going to learn from this–if not this year then soon. They feel bad enough, I hate seeing the pile on ):

38. I think Lindy is getting exposed here. A team doesn’t just shut down like this. Not absolving the players at all but this is definitely on coaching. The players look lost and it doesn’t seem like they’re getting any guidance as to how to combat what their opponent is throwing at them.

    The lineup choices were also suspect. First, I don’t ever want Wood or Smith to see the ice for this team again. Someone else said it but Vitek has the yips. He seems so lost out there. Throw Luke and Schmid out there for game 3. Get these guys the experience and maybe it could even spark something.

    Also, a special thank you to the drunk Devils fans in my section who did nothing but make us all look like drunk, sore losers. I hate their team but don’t take personal shots at opposing fans. I actually felt a little bad for the Rags fan who was pretty much arguing with a couple of drunken idiots who wouldn’t stop harassing the guy.

39. I haven’t been able to watch the games: are the Devils really getting outplayed that bad? I really want them to beat the Rags.

40. Do ppl still think Andrew “you know I coached for the panthers right. You don’t care do you?” Brunette is a good assistant coach/potential head coach. Everyone was assigning him the credit for this year and I think it was overly simple logic. Lindy isn’t the only coach and none of the other coaches seem to do anything either. It’s one of the few times where a fan can be a know it all and actually be right. There’s no adjustment at all even throughout the regular season.

41. Never thought I’d say this, but Lindy is really making Hynes look like a good coach. How do you healthy scratch Siegs with Smith and not even give Luke a chance. That among many other things that have gone wrong. Oh and I’d make sure Wood never sees the ice again this series after 2 offensive zone penalties the Rags capitalized on so far. Maybe try going 11F/7D next game. Luke can at least slot in at forward if we desperately need it, no?

42. I wanted either the devils or the rangers to win the division only so we didn’t have to go through exactly this.

43. I’ve been stress eating, stress drinking, and stress shit posting the entire night, but I just watched Lindy’s post game media and now I’m actually sad.

    Dude has no anger, no passion, looks like he’s about to fall asleep on the mic. I’m about to yeet my fuckin TV through the back door and this asshole is goin “oh, y’know, I thought that call on Miles was a toughie. O well, we talked about it y’know.” like fuck you Lindy you’re the reason this team has no fuckin backbone.

44. Lost my cool at a bunch of Rags fans behind me in the last minute. First time that’s ever happened to me in my life, just couldn’t take it anymore. Cannot fathom acting that way in another team’s building. Their fans give us the most unearned condescension I’ve ever witnessed, they think they have the Yankees history when they’re really the Knicks.

45. I look forward to us somehow stealing a game at MSG so we can get eliminated in front of 13000 rangers fans on home ice

46. I remember rebuilding and thinking “man I can’t wait to make the playoffs”. Turns out, the playoffs are not very much fun

47. That’s the series IMO