You’ll never believe this, but Jack Hughes played another unbelievable game against the Rangers. If there wasn’t confirmation that he was a Ranger killer before, I think a stat line of 20 goals and 35 assists in 25 games will just about do it. He is just allowed to do whatever he wants out there, it’d be great if the leadership group had an ounce of pride in them to do everything they could to stop him, but I suppose that’s asking too much of this sad bunch of leaders.
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Where to even begin on after a game like this? Do you start with how they were outshot 17-2 in the first period and trailed 2-1? Or do we look at some stoppable shots that were not saved because Father Time is undefeated? Or maybe the fact that since JT Miller has returned, the Rangers have gone 1-2-0 and been outshot 113-58 in those 3 games? Why did he come back exactly and not just get shutdown the rest of the season?
No particular line had a good night as this game was pretty much all Devils throughout. Though from a points perspective, Mika Zibanejad is inching closer to another 30 goal campaign and has really turned his game around. The chemistry of him, Gabe Perreault, and Alexis Lafreniere at 5 on 5 is fun to watch and gives us hope for next year.
Perreault is such a good forechecker and showed it in the opening minutes of the second period when he made an aggressive pinch into the zone pressuring Dougie Hamilton. The puck deflected off his stick, off the board, and hit a streaking Zibanejad who then fired a shot that Markstrom couldn’t get, tying the game at two goals apiece. The rest of the night was rough, but that was a nice little bright spot.
How about that Vlad Gavrikov? The Rangers really have struck gold on the fit here. His offense probably isn’t repeatable every year, but he’s on pace to triple his career high in goals. That’s nuts. Like any defenseman on a bad team, Gavrikov hasn’t been perfect, especially defensively. There have been some breakdowns over the last little bit that are just not typical plays you see from him, especially on the penalty kill.
As mentioned above, Jonathan Quick had an absolutely brutal game in net. With the season winding down, and his play being rather inconsistent, I must ask again, are we ever calling up Dylan Garand? Or is Garand just going to show up in the fall and compete to become the backup with 2 or 3 other players?
It’s pretty clear that the Rangers are letting Quick call his shot and finish out his career as a Ranger, but it can be tough to watch at times. He let in a couple of goals that a prime Quick simply would have stopped due to reaction time. It’s fun that a Hall of Fame goaltender is getting to live out his dream of playing for the team he rooted for, but at some point maybe we see Garand? He might be the future backup next season.
Though to be fair, that’s nitpicking. Let’s enjoy watching his final games, even if it does “help the tank.”