‘Rebel’ Devils ready for challenge of facing Rangers in NHL Playoffs

In New York sports the Yankees have owned the “Empire” moniker from Star Wars, but perhaps Devils head coach Lindy Ruff was subtly trying to place that crown on the Rangers headed into Game 1 of their first-round series on Tuesday.

The more experienced Rangers present a challenging task for the Devils, but Ruff seemed confident in his group ahead of the first game. Tuesday will be the first time that the Devils and Rangers face off with one another in the postseason since 2012.

“A lot of our guys haven’t been inside a (playoff) game, so I think the advantage goes to them right off the bat because a lot of their guys have lived it and have been there,” Ruff said after practice on Monday. “But we’re, for the most part, we’re a bunch of rebels. Young rebels that are ready to go.”

The Devils should go into the series with some confidence having bested the Rangers in three of their four regular-season meetings and in four of their last six contests dating back to the end of the 2021-22 NHL season. New Jersey has also outscored New York 14-11 this season.

Ruff said that the energy level had been great through the past week of practice as the NHL playoffs approached and he felt the energy level really rise in practice two days ago.

“The leadup is kind of tough,” Ryan Graves said. “You’re nervous and you just kind of want to get things going. You kind of just want to get things started,

But that doesn’t mean Graves doesn’t think the Devils can’t match up with the Rangers.

“Nobody really had us in this position and we don’t feel like we don’t deserve to be here,” he said. “We think that we’ve earned the right to have home ice and to be the higher seed. We’re a good group. We’re young, we have a lot of speed and we’re trying to play the right way. We’ve had learning curves throughout the whole year and I’m sure it will be the same in the postseason.

“Yes we’re an inexperienced group, but we believe in ourselves and we believe that we can win.”

The Devils will have to overcome several things to defeat the Rangers. One of those things being one of best goaltenders in the NHL in Igor Shesterkin. He’s 7-5-1 in 15 games against New Jersey and owns a .917 save percentage against them.

Ruff knows that it won’t be easy to slip pucks past him.

“You got to get traffic. You got to get second opportunities, you got to make him battle to see the puck,” Ruff said about beating the Rangers starter. “You gotta be able to shoot through screens where he can’t pick them up. We know he’s got his game in a pretty good place, so you look at first opportunities. I think what’s going to be even more important is trying to get the second opportunity through scrambles, through rebounds, because when he’s on his game the first shot doesn’t beat him.”