A historical past of Rangers-Devils’ fierce playoff rivalry — and what’s lacking for this version
Q: Why is that this seventh playoff Battle of the Hudson totally different from the six that preceded it?
A: As a result of it will likely be the primary one with out Martin Brodeur on the Devils roster.
Right here’s a glance again on the first six playoff collection:
1992: Rangers in seven
The aforementioned goaltender made his NHL playoff debut on the age of 19 years and 357 days in Sport 5 of this first-round collection on April 27, 1992, at, of all locations, the Backyard.
Brodeur entered on the 7:56 mark of the second interval, trailing 5-0 after beginning netminder Chris Terreri had yielded 5 targets on 15 photographs.
The Devils rallied to slim the deficit to 5-4 after which 6-5, however Brodeur was credited with the 8-5 loss as a result of he had allowed the final word successful objective (and three in 15 photographs general).
The Devils’ series-tying Sport 6 victory ended with a wild bench-clearing brawl that began on the remaining buzzer, lasted for almost 5 minutes, spilled into the New Jersey bench, featured bouts between Joey Kocur and Claude Lemieux and between Tie Domi and Scott Stevens and produced 118 minutes in penalties.
The primary-place Blueshirts hammered the Devils 8-4 in Sport 7 after taking a 6-1 lead at 13:34 of the second interval solely to lose the Ron-Francis-From-Heart-Ice Sequence one spherical later.
1994: Rangers in seven
The epochal Japanese Convention Finals stands as arguably the best playoff collection in NHL historical past.
“We’ll Win Tonight” and the Mark Messier third-period hat trick in Sport 6 on the Meadowlands that turned a promise into actuality and stored the Blueshirts alive on this collection through which chaos had begun to reign a few contests prior with Mike Keenan’s Sport 4 benching of Brian Leetch.
Sport 7 produced maybe essentially the most well-played recreation of high-stakes hockey ever with Valeri Zelepukin tying it 1-1 with 7.7 seconds remaining within the third interval earlier than Stephane Matteau made a family identify out of Howie Rose in double extra time.
1997: Rangers in 5
These had been the Rangers of Messier and Wayne Gretzky, who intimidated the division-champion Devils and the officers all through this second spherical.
Blueshirts had been shut out within the opener on the Meadowlands, and had been being outshot 16-1 deep into the primary interval of Sport 2 earlier than, a) taking a 1-0 lead on their second shot; and, b) Messier going upside Doug Gilmour’s head in entrance of the New Jersey bench that generated no response.
Mike Richter made a save on John MacLean’s breakaway whereas dropping his glove with 10.5 seconds to go to protect the 1-0 lead earlier than an empty-netter.
The Blueshirts clinched the collection on an OT objective by Adam Graves in Sport 5 after MacLean had damaged Niklas Sundstrom’s arm with a two-hand baseball bat swing on the finish of the earlier contest.
2006: Devils in 4
The Rangers had crashed towards the top of their Cinderella season throughout which the projected lottery workforce ended the group’s seven-year playoff drought and had led the division many of the season.
Rookie netminder Henrik Lundqvist had lower-body points, and had been struggling migraines.
Jaromir Jagr, who established franchise information with 54 targets and 123 factors, was worn down.
The Blueshirts misplaced their remaining 5 video games of the season.
The Devils scored 5 PPGs of their 6-1 Sport 1 victory through which Jagr suffered a critical shoulder damage within the remaining minutes by taking a wild punch at Scott Gomez.
Lundqvist was benched in favor of Kevin Weekes for Sport 2, Jagr was basically incapacitated the remainder of the way in which and this one ended quietly and rapidly.
2008: Rangers in 5
The Sean Avery Rule, Fatso, Brodeur ignoring Avery within the post-series handshake line.
Sure, that encapsulates this collection through which the Rangers, who had gone 7-0-1 within the season collection, gained all three video games on the Rock whereas turning the Devils’ first-year house into MSG West.
The one recreation the Blueshirts didn’t win on this collection towards a rattled opponent was Sport 3 on the Backyard, the one through which Avery waved his stick and arms in Brodeur’s face, prompting the NHL to right away undertake a rule banning that kind of habits.
2012: Devils in six
Eighteen years after 1994, a now-40-year-old Brodeur twisted historical past his means by outplaying Vezina-winning Lundqvist on this beautiful upset that was over when Adam Henrique stated it was in Sport 6 extra time.
Marian Gaborik, who had scored 41 targets throughout the season, was benched for the primary 11:00 of the third interval of the Sport 2, 3-2 defeat after his failure to clear the puck instantly preceded New Jersey’s tying objective.
After splitting first 4 video games, Rangers fell behind 3-0 inside the first 10 minutes of Sport 5 on the Backyard when the Devils scored on three consecutive photographs.
The Blueshirts got here again to tie it at 0:17 of third on a Brodeur puck-handling gaffe, however surrendered the winner to fourth-liner Ryan Carter with 4:24 remaining in regulation.
They had been ousted two nights later.