All Rangers Fans Should Be Devils Fans The Rest Of The Regular Season

Josh Lavallee. Getty Images.

After the Metro-leading Hurricanes flipped a couple 1-goal deficits into a win at MSG Tuesday, the Rangers returned the favor last night. Despite being outplayed for the majority of the tilt a third period Adam Fox tally handed one of the best home squads in the league a rare regulation L. The Blueshirts neutralized an overwhelming Canes attack for the final 20 after Shesterkin turned away 24 of 25 through two periods & were able to come out on top yet again. That's 3 of 4 this season in favor of New York after reeling off 4 of 5 in decisive fashion to wrap up their playoff series in 7 almost a year ago. I genuinely think Carolina is a top-three team in the NHL. I genuinely think they're one of a small group that's better than the revamped Rangers. Still, despite the Devils lacking overall playoff experience & being anchored by a tendie who simply hasn't been any good for the past couple months, I want those Candy Canes in the first round. That makes me a big-time Devils fan the rest of this regular season.

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If you look at the standings, the odds of the Rangers streaking to the top of the division are slim after splitting the home & home with Carolina. In terms of home ice in a series against the Devils - sure it'd be nice but I honestly don't think it'd make that much of a difference. The Devils are easily the league's best road team (26-5-4) anyway. My biggest concern is who they're gonna play, not where. As the old saying goes "styles make fights" and, despite my belief that the Canes are overall the better squad, they're also the better matchup for the Blueshirts. Brind'amour's boys are among the best at dictating play. Doesn't matter who you are, the likelihood of actually outplaying them for a full 60 is pretty low. The key to beating them is to A) be opportunistic offensively and B) weather their surges with strong goaltending. Their offense is predicated on quantity over quality. They're relentless in all phases of the game. If you have a netminder who can string together great performances under a high workload & an offense talented enough not to need a ton of chances to cash in then you've got as good a shot as you can hope for to take down the Hurricanes in a 7-game series…and those happen to be the Blueshirts greatest strengths.

Am I scared of the Devils? Nah. However I do think they're a more dangerous opponent due to their style of play. As we've seen throughout the regular season, NJ is a quick-strike offense. They excel off the rush and Jack Hughes is a fucking PROBLEM for the Rangers to handle. All three games have been track meets (22 goals combined) and whoever started each game off with a 2-0 lead ended up losing. In the one New York victory, the Devils absolutely dominated 5x5 (33-9 overall scoring chances, 13-3 high-danger) and their most recent matchup in early January was more of the same. The Blueshirts style of play feeds right into Jersey's hands. They love making risky passes which tends to result in some bad turnovers. I don't know the numbers but I'd be willing to bet the Devils are among the best in turning takeaways into goals. They've got speed, skill and transition from D to O before you even know what happened. They've hit a bit of a rut since the trade deadline (5-3-3) on top of their inexperience & goaltending question marks. I get that. In regional rivalry games though it always seems like the opponent gets up for the Rangers more than the Rangers get up for them. Combine that with the poor stylistic matchup and I'm signing up instead for an opening date with the Canes, who they've proven they can handle & are down one of their top guns in Svechnikov.

So let's go Devils. Kick our asses next Thursday. Win yourselves a Metro crown and, if you happen to grind past the Isles/Pens/Panthers in the franchise's second playoff series in a decade then we'll fucking dance.

VIVA LA BLUESHIRTS!!!