Chris Kreider broke two franchise records, Adam Fox tallied four assists, while Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 of 28 shots to help propel the New York Rangers to a 1-0 series lead over the New Jersey Devils.
There is a new motto around the team this postseason, as it says the words "Time To Eat" in the Rangers dressing room and on their team-issued apparel. It's evident that this group is hungry for a Stanley Cup and last night, it showed.
I asked Gerard Gallant after the game where the saying came from, to which he said "Haha I don’t know, I can’t tell you that. You’ll have to ask the players about that one.”
I can certainly say this, if last night was time to eat, the Rangers certainly left Newark feeling pretty full.
Game one of the Hudson River Rivalry certainly lived up to the hype. In one way, it was not exactly how the Rangers would have liked to start the game, taking two penalties in the opening six minutes and change.
That being said, they responded right away thanks to a goal from their 2023 NHL Trade Deadline acquisition, Vladimir Tarasenko. Tarasenko was the guy I had picked to be this team's X-Factor prior to the playoffs and it was great to see him get on the board early.
There have been some concerns about the Rangers' power play, but it took them only fifteen seconds into their first opportunity to score a goal. Not just any goal, but in fact, the deflection by Chris Kreider off of the feed from Adam Fox now makes Kreider the all-time leader in New York Rangers franchise history for goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Fox said he had no idea that Kreider had set a new franchise record with this goal, but he was sure to say "Congrats, Chris!" before walking out of the locker room in the postgame media scrum.
New York would carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. It was clear that the Devils had some jitters in the opening frame. It was very noticeable that the Rangers defenseman was playing extra tight on Devils' forward, Jack Hughes. Doing whatever they could to limit his time and space.
There wasn't as much back-and-forth action in period number two, but Hughes was starting to show why he is becoming one of the league's best players.
The Rangers appeared to have scored their second power-play goal of the game when Alexis Lafreniere got a stick on a Jacob Trouba one-timer. It was called a good goal on the ice but was ultimately called back for a high stick, which ultimately was the right call. Lafreniere didn't celebrate when he scored the goal, which tells you a lot about what his opinion would be.
Shortly after, at the 16:57 mark of the period, Ryan Lindgren went short side, top shelf on Vitek Vanecek after receiving a pass from his defensive partner, Adam Fox. The Lindgren goal made the Ranger fans at the Prudential Center erupt, essentially taking the Devils crowd out of the game with their commanding 3-0 lead.
The biggest difference in the game after the first two periods was that the Devils' power play was 0/4 on their opportunities and had ZERO shots on goal. Yup, you read that right. Zero shots on four different man advantages.
The Rangers' penalty kill was very aggressive, but certainly, New Jersey will be making adjustments for game two.
The Rangers' power play prevailed yet again in the third period.
Once again, it was Kreider getting a stick on a shot from the point by Fox. This was Kreider's second record-breaking goal of the game, this time surpassing Adam Graves for most playoff power-play goals of all-time with his 14th.
Hughes would be rewarded a penalty shot at 17:14 of the third period, which he was able to convert. This was his first career playoff goal. The Rangers would answer shortly after as Filip Chytil shot the puck into an empty net since the Devils had pulled Vanecek. This would secure the 5-1 win for the Rangers.
Shesterkin was absolute lights out in the third period and the entire game for that matter, truly deserving the shutout. It's a shame that they couldn't get that done for him, but all in all, the team is very happy with the win.
It felt like Hughes was truly the only player who showed up for the Devils in this game. Every time he was out there the puck seemed to be on his stick. With that said, the Rangers defenseman did a phenomenal job at shutting him down. Despite the penalty shot, of course.
New Jersey will definitely go back to the drawing board, especially in regard to special teams as the Rangers certainly won that battle in game one.
To win the ultimate prize you need to have good special teams and strong goaltending. The Rangers were most definitely good in both areas last night. They went two for three on the power play and a perfect four for four on the penalty kill.
There was no point in the game where it felt like the Devils were in control or where the Rangers were on their heels. As far as I'm concerned, you couldn't ask for a much better effort from this team.
Going forward they'll need to be more disciplined, but considering the fact that the Rangers were underdogs in many people's eyes prior to this series, they did not look like underdogs last night.
It's time to eat and this team isn't leaving any crumbs.