The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils are set to meet for the first time since their grueling seven-game series in the 2023 playoffs.
It's fair to say that New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils have started out the 2023-24 campaign in the complete opposite direction of their teams expectations.
The Devils were the sexy team coming into the season, which they deserved to be after their incredible run last year, but they have had a bit of a roller coaster start sitting with a record of 8-6-1 on the season. Of course, it's been hard without their star player, Jack Hughes, who was leading the NHL in scoring before missing time due to injury. Hughes has played in ten of the teams 15 games.
The Devils have also been missing their captain, Nico Hischier, who has played in seven contests this year. The adversity has hit them early, but anyone who know watched the rebirth of this Hudson River Rivalry knows that no matter who is suiting up, it will be an all out war.
The Rangers have gone 9-0-1 in their last ten games, thanks to strong effort throughout the lineup, but the three stand outs have been Alexis Lafreniere, Artemi Panarin and their new center, Vincent Trocheck. In the teams last four games, they each have scored three goals and have combined for 22 points.
I spoke with Rangers' forward Trocheck back in training camp about the series with the Devils. Trocheck mentioned that "The disappointment of last year sits with you for a long time. It's a long off-season to sit with that and kind of let it eat you up. Coming into this year, it's a no bull**it kind of mentality."
I asked Trocheck specifically if that was the first time in his NHL career that he was a part of such a big rivalry with a 50/50 split in the stands. Trocheck told me "Yea, I guess so. I've been in some rivalry games. I feel like the playoffs are what kind of build rivalries. I feel like, going against a team so many times in playoffs, playing a bunch of different series against one team kind of builds a rivalry. We had that in Carolina with Boston. We played them all three years I was there in playoffs. Lost to them the year before I was there, so that was kind of a rivalry especially in playoffs. But last year with the Devils, kind of being both in the same area, it builds a good rivalry and fans travel pretty easily, so it's always a lot fun to play those types of series."
This game certainly means a lot to both teams, but for the Rangers the focus will be finding their energy early on. New York hasn't played since Sunday night, while the Devils are coming off of a win on Thursday night.
Coach Peter Laviolette said this week that he was going to focus on ramping up the energy in practice this week, but it's very common for teams to come out a little slow after having so many days off.
Expect the Devils to come out flying in the opening ten minutes of the game, but like they've done all year, the Rangers will focus on defense first as they try to slow down this speedy New Jersey team that is getting Jack Hughes back in their lineup.
Igor Shesterkin is likely to start for the first time in 16 days, so it will be interesting to see how sharp he is.
The Hudson River Rivalry is fully back, and tonight should be a fun first meeting.