The two teams that make up the Hudson River Rivalry could not be heading in more opposite directions heading into the NHL’s holiday break.
The Devils, entering Monday’s matinee against the Rangers having won four of their last five games, delivered a 5-0 beatdown in Newark, dropping New York’s record to 4-13 in its last 17 games. Jack Hughes, the face of franchise, logged two goals and an assist to continue his individual dominance of the Blueshirts.
Meanwhile, Chris Kreider, the longest-tenured Ranger and one of their faces of the franchise, was a healthy scratch as head coach Peter Laviolette continues to search for a spark to halt New York’s current freefall, noting that the team “needed more.”
Scratching Kreider didn’t work. So far, trading captain Jacob Trouba and disgruntled youngster Kaapo Kakko hasn’t worked either. Meanwhile, the Devils seem to be pushing all the right buttons since their disappointing 2023-34 campaign ended without a playoff berth. Jacob Markstrom logged his third shutout of the season and second in a row, proving to be a massive improvement over the team’s goaltending a season ago. The revamped defense swallowed up the Rangers all afternoon, and their stars played the part to up the season score to 10-1 in what has been two dominant wins for the Devils.
“That was a great month for us,” Hughes said after Monday’s win. “A lot of good wins at home. That’s a really good feeling heading into Christmas.”
The script was much different just months ago. New Jersey had fallen short of the playoffs after setting a points record a season before, marking one of the most disappointing campaigns in the franchise’s history. Meanwhile, the Rangers came just two wins short of a Stanley Cup berth, with many considering them trendy favorites to finally get back to a Cup Final for the first time since 2014.
Instead, the team has fallen below .500 while the Devils have surged to the top of the Metropolitan Division, fueled by a redefined identity under new head coach Sheldon Keefe, who credited his squad for having “as close to perfect” as a performance on Monday that he could possibly hope for as a coach.
The Rangers didn’t get anything close to that, and instead were left wondering where the team’s fight has gone after crumbling in another putrid performance.
“We get a break now,” Vincent Trocheck said, via Mollie Walker of the New York Post. “We've got to look at ourselves in the mirror here and come back really hungry, because this is just not winning hockey we're playing right now. It's miserable for us, it's miserable for the fans. It's time to figure it out.”
With time to decompress and reflect on the season so far following Monday’s game, both the Devils and Rangers head into the holiday with drastically different vibes, and each team on the complete opposite end of the spectrum in which they occupied just months ago.