The New York Rangers face the New Jersey Devils in Game One of the First Round of the playoffs. The Rangers went 47-22-13 in the regular season to secure the third-best record in the Metropolitan Division while the Devils have a 52-22-8 record and with seven wins in their last 10 games, they finished in second place in the division. This is the seventh time the two rivals are meeting in a playoff series and the last time saw the Devils advance to the Stanley Cup Final in six games in 2012 and all indications are that series will be a great one.
The Rangers put together a great season with their offense stepping up and scoring 3.33 goals per game including 3.63 goals per game in the second half of the season. Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, and Vincent Trocheck have combined for 90 goals and 157 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has stepped up as well. Chris Kreider, Filip Chytil, and Kaapo Kakko have contributed 76 goals and 63 assists while Adam Fox and K'Andre Miller have added 21 goals and 94 assists from the point to open up the offense.
The offense has been great but the defense has carried the Rangers, allowing only 2.63 goals per game with only six goals in the last three games. Fox and Miller have combined for 11.1 defensive point shares and 230 blocked shots while Ryan Lindgren, Braden Schneider, and Jacob Trouba have combined for 12.5 defensive point shares to add depth to the unit. In addition, go altender Igor Shesterkin has been great with a .916 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average on 1719 shots with 20.6 goals saved above average.