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WHAT'S NEXT
The Devils play the third game of a four-part series against the NY Rangers Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. You can watch on MSG+ and listen on the Devils Hockey Network,
including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com.
Game time is 12:38 PM ET.
Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren and Artemi Panarin (2) scored for the Rangers. New York goaltender Igor Shesterkin recorded back-to-back shutouts against the Devils with 16 saves tonight. He's stopped 43 total shots in the last two games.
"We talkd that we needed to slow down their attack, get above them," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't do that. You look at the last game (Tuesday), the way we skated, how hard we forechecked, (tonight) we had none of that."
Here are some other observations from the game…
* The Devils were caught puck watching on three of the Rangers' first four goals of the game, and were lost in their coverage as a result.
The first goal came as the team was tracking back into its own zone. The Rangers' K'Andre Miller put a shot on net and from there the entire Devils roster was scrambling to recover, including goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. By the time Trouba scored from the far circle, the Devils had all five guys at their own net, but covering no one.
The second goal had a similar development. Instead of holding their gaps, picking up men and rotating, the Devils were chasing the puck. As a result, they ended up with three players on the far wall against two Rangers. That left Lindgren wide open for a slap shot goal from above the circles.
New York made it 4-0 at the 12:51 mark of the second period. A blocked shot came off the end boards awkwardly to the low circle. The Devils seemed to think the puck was going to rim behind the goal and were caught flat footed and out of position. They get beat to the puck and allow a pass through their own crease to a wide-open Panarin.
* Hughes was a man possessed for much of the game. He hit a post on the power play in the opening period. He followed that with a great defensive stick work in the second. He stole a puck from Trouba in the offensive zone and cut to the net for a partial breakaway. The puck was bouncing on him so he couldn't quite make a move, opting to shoot it quickly, which was stopped by Shesterkin. Hughes picked a puck from Filip Chytil in the offensive zone and set up Janne Kuokkanen in the slot, but he missed the net on his shot.
* Looking for some bright notes, captain Nico Hischier went 12-5 in the face-off dot. That's an eye-popping 71-percent winning percentage.
* The post continues to torment the Devils as they clang the red-painted metal three more times in the contest.
"You've got to have confidence that you can make plays under duress," Ruff said. "By the end of the night, we hit three posts. There were some in-tight plays I thought we could have executed better. But you've got to stay with it and it'll start going in for you."
