We’ll tell each other, it’s not this way, and with a pitiful air, that the New York Rangers thought they were going home.
Because these Rangers believed that this season was going to be theirs. Like a compulsive gambler who sits too long at the same table on the pretext that “it’s coming”, the Rangers chose to throw all their chips at once before the trade deadline, bringing in Messrs. Kane and Tarasenko, as if they were the Yankees of hockey.
But in hockey, those things rarely work out.
These Rangers, moreover, took advantage of a very bad moment to break down offensively.
After winning the first two games in a very decisive way, by a combined mark of 10-2, they had two games of one goal, and two of zero, including this one, the seventh and last of the series, won with a hand behind the back by the New Jersey Devils, and by the score of 4-0.
But who was the torturer of the Blue Shirts during those dark days? A certain Akira Schmid, fifth-round pick in 2018. We thank him for reminding us, another time, that in modern hockey, it is no longer necessary to bet on a $ 10.5 million goaltender to advance ( we will tell you about Laurent Brossoit another time).
This Schmid, therefore, has allowed himself to soap up the Rangers twice in this series, and this is probably the most astonishing end in this history. Again on Monday, he said no to his opponents 31 times.
His arrival in front of the Devils net, from game number three, certainly changed the proverbial edge wind. At the same time, and especially on Monday night, Rangers’ big guns were invisible, which is hard to explain in the context of a game number seven, where you can expect quite a bit more from the star players. .
By the way, while the Kane, Panarin and other Tarasenkos were very quiet in the visiting camp, the Devils’ second goal was scored by… Tomas Tatar. That’s good to say.
So can we talk about a real surprise here? Not really, no, since the Devils were still favored by several experts in this series. Rather, it is their rise that is noteworthy.
Last season, New Jersey players finished the season 14th in the Eastern Conference standings with a modest 63 points. This season, they jumped to third place in that same standings, with a total of 112 points. It’s quite a dramatic turnaround, and it must be able to make some supporters of a certain team dream who hasn’t won anything since 1993.
In closing, a word on Jacob Trouba, the captain of the Rangers, who took himself for Scott Stevens for one evening and who went and ripped off poor Timo Meier’s head, with a check that was, seems he, completely legal. In any case, Trouba was not punished on the game.
Who can claim to be able to explain that? Nobody, probably, because the NHL rulebook is a mystery comparable to the pyramids of Egypt, and it applies according to the evening of the week, according to the month of the year, and again, it can change when leap years.
But it would be good, one day, to review and rethink all that, because hockey players are not made to get hit like that. Go ask Eric Lindros.
