It is a new season with a new team that has a new identity. But there are at least two constants from last year. They are Ranger domination of the Battle of Hudson, and Henrik Lundqvist’s superiority when matched against Martin Brodeur.
The score was 4-1 at the Garden last night for the blue-collar Blueshirts over the red-faced Devils, who are 0-8-1 in the last nine regular-season meetings between the clubs and who, of course, were drummed out of the playoffs by the Rangers in last April’s first-round five-game series.
And if there are myriad reasons the Rangers have seized complete control of this rivalry, paramount among them is Brodeur’s penchant for surrendering at least one weak goal a game to the team he once owned.
Last night, it was the first goal, a Brandon Dubinsky left-board drive from 40 feet away that knuckled off a defenseman’s stick. Brodeur all but whiffed on it at 13:30 of the first. It was a throwback moment to last season.
And as Brodeur bent, King Henrik – 13-2-4 lifetime in the rivalry – broke the Devils’ backs with another outstanding performance, especially so during a span of 24:30 bridging the second and third periods in which New Jersey outshot the Blueshirts 19-4.
There was more to it than the goaltending edge that allowed the Rangers to match the 5-0 get-away franchise record first established in 1983-84. There was Aaron Voros going to the front to score two on re-directs from the point. There was relentless pressure by the penalty-killing unit that snuffed three Devil power plays to extend the team’s perfect record to 21 straight on the year.
Voros went to the blue paint like a locomotive to obscure Brodeur’s vision the way Sean Avery did last season. Well, yes and no. Very different style on and off the ice, very same results against Brodeur.
At 5-0, neither Tom Renney nor the Rangers are looking ahead, a point the coach made in referencing yesterday’s death in Russia of 19-year-old Alexei Cherepanov.
“We’re going to stay humble, work hard and take nothing for granted,” Renney said. “Especially off a day like this, how could you?”
Rangers 4 Devils 1