The Hudson River Rivalry had a real moment not long ago. In the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Rangers-Devils felt like one of those matchups that could anchor the sport for years.
New Jersey came in with a young, rising group led by Jack Hughes, while the Rangers pushed hard with Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko. The numbers backed up the buzz, too: Game 6 drew 1.9 million viewers on ESPN, and Game 7 hit 2 million.
But the shine faded fast. Both teams dropped off, and the rivalry lost some of its pull along with them.
There were still flashes that reminded everyone why this matchup can get nasty. Matt Rempe turned into a wrecking machine and, as the source puts it, probably should have been suspended longer for the illegal hits he delivered against the Devils.
After he knocked Jonas Siegenthaler out for months, the next time Rempe stepped on the ice, the game exploded into a full line brawl. And last year even brought a goalie fight, which is always going to get attention.
Still, the schedule did the rivalry no favors. Last season, the Devils and Rangers met only three times, and every one of those games came in March. By then, both teams were well out of the playoff race, and even Jack Hughes couldn’t drag enough interest back to the matchup.
This season was supposed to be different. With the NHL moving to an 84-game schedule, division opponents are set to meet four times, which should have made it easy to spread these games out and keep the rivalry alive. Instead, the league managed to miss again.
The Devils and Rangers do play four times this season, but none of those games comes after Christmas. They meet once in September and then three times in December. After that, the rivalry disappears until 2027-28.
That’s a rough setup for a matchup the league should be trying to showcase. If these games were staggered across October, December, January, and March, each one would feel different and carry its own weight. As it stands, one injury or one bad stretch could drain the whole thing before the season really settles in.
The complaint here is simple: the NHL needs to understand the schedule better. The source makes the point bluntly - it looks like this thing is being built in AI, and a human touch would have spotted the problem.
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