The New York Rangers were in the drivers seat against their bitter rival New Jersey Devils, having dominated them in the first two games of their Round 1 Stanley Cup Playoffs series at Prudential Center by a combined score of 10-2. You’d think that heading home to the rocking atmosphere of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan with a two games to none series lead would be a good thing for the Blueshirts.
However, the Devils gave the Rangers a little taste of hell in New York, first defeating them in overtime thanks to a Dougie Hamilton snipe, and then continuing to stifle their offensive attack in last night’s Game 4 and tying things up at two games apiece. Goaltender Akira Schmid has been solid between the pipes, stopping 57 of the 59 shots the Rangers have fired his way since replacing Vitek Vanecek.
For the Rangers to suddenly fall flat on home ice in the postseason is understandably not sitting well with head coach Gerard Gallant, who took his team to task in his postgame media remarks.
“Not good. Not good enough. Not even close to good enough,” a visibly frustrated Gallant said. “Very disappointing.”
Gallant also didn’t care for, as he put it, his players caring more about voicing their displeasure with the performance of the linesman more than their own.
“We didn’t show up,” Gallant said. We didn’t play hard enough. We didn’t compete hard enough. All we did was yap at the linesmen for getting thrown out of the faceoffs. A lot of bad things tonight.”
New York certainly wasn’t aided by their power-play units, which have gone completely dry and are mired in an 0-for-11 slump after initially starting the postseason red hot.
The series now shifts back to Prudential Center in Newark, where the rejuvenated Devils will hope to gain the upper hand on the Rangers by seizing a one-game lead before returning to New York for Game 6.
Game 5 between the two teams will take place Thursday night beginning at 7:30 PM EST.
