If the Rangers were looking for a clean reset, Thursday night offered the opposite. New Jersey turned the Hudson River Rivalry into a rout, burying New York 7-1 at Prudential Center in a game that quickly slipped from awkward to ugly.
The Rangers never found their footing after a first period that only looked competitive on the scoreboard. Dylan Garand was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots, and the collapse around him only deepened once the Devils began stacking shifts and chances in waves. It was the first time the 24-year-old goalie had given up more than two goals in his NHL career, and his first loss in seven NHL starts dating to last season.
New Jersey struck first with 30 seconds left in the opening frame when Evan Rodrigues cashed in on a Rangers turnover from captain J.T. Miller.
That was the opening of the floodgates. The Devils then ripped off four straight in the second period, including three in a stretch of 4:31, before adding two more in the third.
The game had already started to tilt well before the final score got out of hand. New York controlled much of the pace early, and New Jersey did not log its first shot on goal until 9:43 of the first period. The Rangers also killed off a 5-on-3 chance after Marcus Pettersson and Noah Laba were whistled at 11:58, a sequence that briefly suggested the visitors might escape the opening period unscathed.
Instead, Miller’s turnover at the end of the period gave the Devils the break they were waiting for.
From there, the second period turned into a storm. Luke Hughes scored 18 seconds in, Nico Hischier made it 3-0 at 4:08, and Arseny Gritsyuk followed with the fourth goal at 4:39 after a Jack Hughes shot created a rebound.
Coach Mike Sullivan used a timeout after the Hischier goal, but the damage was already piling up. Spencer Martin replaced Garand after that sequence and later surrendered Luke Hughes’ second goal at 16:35.
By the third, New Jersey was still finding space and speed in transition. Stefan Noesen pushed it to 6-0 at 7:01, and although the Rangers finally got on the board minutes later, the night belonged entirely to the Devils. Pavel Dorofeyev redirected an Adam Fox shot on the power play at 8:02 for his first power-play goal of the season, ending a six-game goal drought and giving Alexis Lafreniere a secondary assist to extend his point streak to six games.
But even that only interrupted the bleeding briefly. On New York’s fourth and final power play, Cody Glass beat Martin short-handed at 14:54 to close out the scoring.
The Devils’ dominance wasn’t just in the tally. New Jersey killed all four Rangers power plays and then controlled the game at 5-on-5 over the final 40 minutes, holding a 9-1 edge in high-danger chances and a 69.81 percent expected-goal share, according to Natural Stat Trick. During the second intermission, MSG analyst Steve Valiquette didn’t hide how familiar it all looked.
“For Rangers fans, it looks a little bit like the iteration of last year’s team,” Steve Valiquette said during the second intermission. “And that scares me a little bit because I would’ve liked for them to slow that period down.”
The result dropped the Rangers to 1-2-0 against Metropolitan Division opponents and 1-3-0 on the road in 2026-27. It also marked another rough night against New Jersey; the Rangers lost two of three meetings with the Devils last season, and both defeats came with six goals allowed.
The teams will meet three more times in December. For now, the Rangers head to Columbus to face the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Saturday night.
In Other News...
Rangers Suddenly Have A Pavel Dorofeyev Problem Mike Sullivan Can't Ignore
The Rangers have kept rolling even without Igor Shesterkin and Pavel Dorofeyev, but the latter has become a bigger talking point by the day. Dorofeyev has labored through a difficult season, and the team has already tried to spark him by moving him onto the top line, hoping a change in responsibility and surroundings would help him find his footing. For now, its another case of New York trying to keep its forward mix productive while one of its more prominent pieces searches for a rhythm.
Mike Sullivan is not treating the situation as static, either. Further line changes are on the table if Dorofeyev does not show more, and there is growing pressure on how long the club can keep waiting for the offense to catch up. The real issue is less about one cold stretch than what comes next if it continues, because the Rangers have to decide how much patience to show before they start making tougher choices with his role. [Read more 🡒]
Alexis Lafreniere Is Giving The Rangers Something Theyve Needed
The Rangers have opened the season 6-2, and the early surge has been fueled by a strong start at home, where they are still unbeaten. At the center of it all has been Alexis Lafreniere, who has emerged as the clubs most productive forward so far and given New York the kind of top-end scoring pop it has been searching for.
Lafrenieres start has included 10 points in eight games and a scoring rhythm that has kept him in the conversation every night. The pace is almost certainly going to come back to earth as the schedule wears on, but the bigger takeaway for the Rangers is harder to miss: he looks more assertive, more dangerous, and more like a player capable of carrying real offensive weight. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers' Fast Start Is Making This Team Feel Different Already
Early returns around Madison Square Garden have given the Rangers a noticeably different feel, and the chatter is coming from more than just the usual optimistic corner of the fan base. A Rangers supporter, an NHL scout and a podcast co-host have all pointed to the teams improved shape on the ice, with the defense looking sharper and more of the roster pulling its weight in the opening stretch.
The changes go beyond a hot start from a familiar core, too, because observers are already connecting the dots between the offseason reshaping of the roster and the way the team is playing now. There is still plenty of season left to learn how durable this version really is, but the early signs have been enough to make people around the team wonder whether the Rangers have found a faster, more connected identity than they had a year ago. [Read more 🡒]