Rangers Keep The Devils Winless At Home With Shut Out

Added on Nov 06, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

The injury plagued New York Rangers’ Coach John Tortorella had to do some shuffling because of an injury to Ryan Callahan that he suffered in the game against the Flyers the night before. However, Henrik Lundqvist would still get the call against New Jersey, despite coming off a 4-1 defeat in Philadelphia 24 hours prior. This must have raised Lundqvist’s confidence because he put on a show that would leave the Devils scoreless at the end of 3 periods. To add insult to injury, the New Jersey Devils are still winless at home (0-5-1.)

Lundqvist, who stopped 33 shots said “I don’t think it was an easy win, but I felt more controlled out there than I did a couple of times Thursday night. It was important for us to come back with a strong effort after the loss. We did a lot of good things, played with a lot of grit. Beating the Devils is always a good thing.”

Tortorella agreed “Henrik is Henrik, it’s what’s to be expected. It’s something I’ve always appreciated about him the short time I’ve been with him, he’s a competitor. You don’t have to worry about how he’s going to handle himself. He’s got that in him, and I truly respect that about him.”

Brian Boyle agreed, and said of Lundqvist “He’s just world-class, what can you say? He’s a huge part of our team, obviously, and we start and end with him.”

The score doesn’t reflect how well the Devils played against New York. In fact, The Devils controlled the puck most of the first forty minutes of the game, and even out shot the Rangers in the first 2 frames. Coach Tortorella continued “We hung in there, At times we were outquicked and couldn’t get to pucks, but we stayed with it. It’s a beat-up team, even the guys that are playing are banged up, so I just like how we played as a team.”

With all the injuries the Ranges have had to deal, they have been able to step up their scoring from other players on the team. Brian Boyle has already surpassed his career high goal scoring mark in just 13 games. “It is a career-year for me, hopefully it’s not over,” said Boyle jokingly following the game. “I got the monkey off my back with number five, I guess. I’m going to try to forget about it so I can keep going, I don’t want to stop at five.”

The New Jersey Devils weren’t as jovial as Boyle was after the game. Having still not won at home, the Devils are frustrated with how they have been reacting at key moments in the game. Forward Patrik Elias commented “I thought we were the better team, dominating the play for most of the game, and then we don’t give ourselves a chance to get back in the third period, We lost the game right there.”

First year Devils coach John MacLean “We played hard. We competed hard. We’re just not generating enough offense.” The bad news seems to be piling up for him. His team fell to 4-10-1 overall and 0-5-1 at home, and New Jersey has scored an NHL-low 25 goals. New Jersey with nine points leads only Buffalo in the Eastern Conference.