Tonight was the third and final meeting between the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers. In a season where just about everything has gone wrong, games against the Rangers were an oasis in a desert. New Jersey had won the previous two meetings by identical 6-3 final scores, and each contest was about as lopsided as those scores would indicate. But tonight was a different story, as the Devils just could not get anything going in a lifeless 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure when the NHL scheduled this game all those months ago, they envisioned two bitter rivals jockeying for playoff position, setting up a contest with a ton of juice. Needless to say, that did not materialize. The Rangers were the first team in the Eastern Conference to be eliminated from playoff contention, while the Devils have been effectively eliminated for a while now. As a result, there was just no electricity in this game whatsoever. I suppose the Rangers had a tiny little pep in their step (which is way more than they had in the previous two matchups), but nothing to write home about. The biggest source of energy tonight came in the third period, when we saw an honest to goodness goalie fight. Paul Cotter ran Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers skaters all jumped him, and Shesterkin swooped in and threw a punch of his own at Cotter. This enraged Jacob Markstrom, who skated all the way down the ice and dropped the gloves blocker and mitt to tussle with Shesterkin. Markstrom definitely lost the fight, though he did get a couple decent hits in himself.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I respect Markstrom\u2019s decision to go for it. Cotter was the second Devil Shesterkin took a swipe at tonight (more on that below), and Markstrom had finally had enough. It backfired obviously, but a part of me does admire Markstrom standing up for his guy. So credit to him for that.<\/p>\n
Respect aside, the fight was just a small part of an overall bad night for Markstrom. He allowed those four goals on 22 shots, a dismal .818 save percentage. He once again allowed a goal on the very first shot he faced, and frankly I don\u2019t know how he keeps doing that. Markstrom has an uncanny ability to put his team behind the eight ball immediately, which I\u2019m sure is a huge psychological strain on his team. Granted, that first shot was a tough deflection, but it was definitely a stoppable shot. I won\u2019t blame him too much for the second or fourth goal he allowed, which were the results of shoddy defense that Markstrom truly had no chance on. But the third goal the Rangers scored was the direct result of yet another room service rebound by Markstrom, allowing something called \u201cJaroslav Chmelar\u201d to score easily.<\/p>\n
In all, Markstrom was terrible tonight. He\u2019s been terrible for much of the season, and he\u2019ll probably be terrible the rest of the way. And in case you forgot, his two-year, $6m AAV extension kicks in next season. There\u2019s just no defending it at this point, not that there was ever any defending it at any point.<\/p>\n
All that being said, even if Markstrom was prime Martin Brodeur this evening, it still would\u2019ve been tough for New Jersey to win. That\u2019s because, as mentioned, the team just did not have any jump at all. The offense was lethargic, the defense was lax, the transition game sputtered, and the decision-making was bad. Other than that, things went great.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if I would say any Devils skater had a good game tonight. Jack Hughes did some classic Jack Hughes things, but he also got pinned in his own zone several times, including getting victimized on the Rangers\u2019 fourth goal. Connor Brown scored the lone goal tonight, a power-play tally that, at the time, got the Devils back in the game at 2-1. But as part of Hughes\u2019 line, he had most of the same problems as Hughes tonight. Nico Hischier had the assist on Brown\u2019s goal, and while I thought he didn\u2019t have as many bad defensive shifts as the Hughes line, I didn\u2019t think he moved the needle much. Simon Nemec was active on offense, which was nice, but he too had plenty of poor shifts. Brenden Dillon wasn\u2019t bad either, but I definitely wouldn\u2019t say he was outright good.<\/p>\n
No, I don\u2019t think any Devil had a good game tonight. The season is over of course, so it makes sense that the team would have less motivation at this point. Still, this is a rivalry game against one of the few teams that New Jersey is decidedly better than. You would think that the team would get up for this, but apparently they couldn\u2019t be bothered.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re about to enter the final month of this season. Tonight\u2019s game was yet another reminder of why it can\u2019t end soon enough.<\/p>\n