Goaltending was the difference in this season’s first edition of the Battle of the Hudson.
Not for the Rangers, who have consistently had the edge in net in recent years, but for the Devils, who benefitted from a stellar performance from goalie Jakob Markstrom in their first regular-season win — 5-1 — over their tristate rivals since March 30, 2023 on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin hasn’t been able to mask the team’s mistakes as effectively as he did at the start of the season.
For weeks that’s been the case, even despite the way Shesterkin kept the Blueshirts competitive in games they had no business being in.
Monday night saw Shesterkin break down himself, however, just like the rest of the team around him has over what is now the first five-game losing streak of his six-year NHL career.
At some point, the backbone is going to cave in amid significant and repeated stress.
By no means does this 1-6 stretch the Rangers have stumbled through fall on Shesterkin’s shoulders, but the 28-year-old has veered from his best self at times as the team has descended into unrest.
Shesterkin was certainly not the superior netminder on the ice Monday night.
That much was apparent as Markstrom, in his first season with the Devils, stopped 39 of the 40 shots he faced. The Swedish netminder was the best penalty killer on the ice, denying eight of the Rangers’ nine shots across four power plays.
The tone was set in this one after Shesterkin gave up two goals on the Devils’ first four shots of the game.
Continuing to bleed odd-man rush chances, the Rangers found themselves behind less than 90 seconds into the game, when Jesper Bratt took it himself on a 2-on-1 rush for the 1-0 lead.
Allowing early goals has been a concerning trend for the Rangers this season, one that has lingered despite the team’s acknowledgement of it.
A neutral-zone turnover by Will Cuylle later allowed the Devils to regain the Rangers zone, where Dawson Mercer made a strong move to the middle of the ice before whipping it under the pad of Shesterkin to double his team’s lead.
The Devils power play scored twice in the second period, while Jack Hughes notched two goals himself — the first at five-on-five and the second with the man advantage. Hughes stood out on every shift he took in this one, racking up three points and a game-high eight shots on goal.
Twenty-four games into the season, the Rangers have given up five or more goals seven times.
It’s been over six weeks since the Rangers last beat a top-tier team.
They just snapped a five-game losing skid with a win over the lowly Canadiens, but a one-goal win over the worst team in the Eastern Conference is hardly a victory to be proud of.
Devils fans in attendance at MSG Monday night taunted Shesterkin, the Rangers and Rangers fans.
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