Of course, it came down to Jack Hughes. Of these Rangers, and of these Devils, who else could it be?
Hughes, who collected a hat trick the last time these two teams met two weeks ago, entered Wednesday night with 19 goals in 24 career games against the Blueshirts, and with the Rangers threatening in the third period, Hughes – who also starred for Team USA in the gold medal game at the Winter Olympics – delivered the sting.
He ripped a shot past Jonathan Quick with 6:55 left in the third period, providing the insurance New Jersey needed in the Rangers’ 6-3 loss to the Devils at the Garden.
Vladislav Gavrikov, Mika Zibanejad and Conor Sheary all scored for the Blueshirts, who nearly overcame the losses of Urho Vaakanainen (upper body injury) and Noah Laba (lower body injury) and several double turnovers that followed, but still lost their second straight and fell to 0-7 against the Devils and Islanders. The Blueshirts are now 26-9 in those games.
So in a way, this served as a microcosm of the Rangers reality in the city right now. They belong to the Eastern Conference.
The Devils have Hughes, who became an all-time hero with his stunning goal last month in Milan. The Islanders have Matthew Schaefer — the electrifying No. 1 option — and a chance to make a playoff appearance on Long Island. And the Blueshirts, as this latest loss has shown, are stuck in the middle of a rebuild.
Less than two weeks ago, after their previous loss to the Devils when Hughes and the Devils went three-for-three with the man advantage, Mike Sullivan didn’t mince words when talking about the Rangers’ penalty kill.
There was a “lack of urgency,” he said. They were testing their own goalkeeper. They did not punch in front of their net.
Then on Wednesday night, it all happened again.
The Blueshirts allowed the Devils to collect two more power play goals.
Based on the way the first half went, it appeared that the Rangers deficit was worse than the goal after the first 20 minutes. They were outscored 17-3 by the Devs.
One of those was a goal, however, as Vladislav Gavrikov’s shot found the net and ended up being his 14th of the season. But the Devils quickly responded with a power play goal from Nico Hischier and a goal from Arseny Gritsyuk.
Zibanejad’s goal 19 seconds into the second period swung the momentum back in the Rangers’ favor, however. It was Sheary’s second goal in five games, even after Connor Brown scored on the man advantage and Timo Meier added an offside goal.
But Hughes then issued a reminder of his role in the Battle of the Hudson. The Rangers kept him quiet for more than 40 minutes, but in the end, he returned to his bully role when the Devils needed it most.
