Preseason Game Preview #2: New Jersey Devils vs. New York Rangers

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 31: Dougie Hamilton #7 of the New Jersey Devils and Adam Sykora #38 of the New York Rangers fight for the puck at Madison Square Garden on March 31, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils versus the New York Rangers

Visit raccoongame.org for more information.

The Time: 7:00 PM ET

The Broadcast: Local TV — MSGSN and DAZN/Gotham Sports Streaming; Radio — Devils Hockey Radio

Time for the NHLers

Yesterday afternoon’s game against the New York Islanders featured very few of the New Jersey Devils who will actually be on the NHL club this season. By comparison, today will be a rarity for a preseason game: a game where only one of the rostered players for the New Jersey Devils did not play in the NHL last season.

That one pure AHL player would be Mikael Diotte, who played his first season in the AHL last season and had eight points in 53 games. The other two AHLers on the roster, Topias Vilen and Marc McLaughlin, played two and seven games for the Devils last season, respectively. With three full-NHL lines and two such pairings, the Devils should be playing their “best” game tonight as far as preseason efforts go.

In net, Jake Allen and Nico Daws will split the game, with Allen only expected to play one period. I think this is a good indication for how the regime currently views the goaltending situation. Jake Allen has very little to prove and is just warming up for the season, while Daws will get a little more time to shine. But whether either of them are asked to play a full game as David Rittich did yesterday remains to be seen, as Rittich has a much higher bar to clear to make this roster than even Nico Daws seems to have. If Daws and Allen play full games out of the next two, I think you will have your answer to the Devils’ goaltending situation.

Little Challenge From the Rangers

By comparison, the New York Rangers are not running out their best roster. We will see former Devils Dennis Cholowski and Justin Dowling alongside some younger players, including Adam Sykora and Liam Greentree, the latter of whom was acquired in the Artemi Panarin trade. You can see their roster release below.

Something to watch for here is how well the Devils can balance playing their game while not engaging in certain activities an AHL-heavy Rangers roster is likely to seek out. With players like Dylan Roobroeck, Anton Blidh, and Matt Rempe on the ice, the Devils are going to have to make sure they are aware of their surroundings. These are players whose only paths to the NHL are largely through grit: I would not expect them to make much of an effort to keep up with the Devils’ top three lines on a skill level.

Which Line Will Shine?

Even though the competition level will be very unbalanced, I remain excited to see how that top six looks together with Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista joining the fold. I wonder, though, if they will actually play top six minutes, or if the lion’s share will actually go to those Rodrigues and McLaughlin lines. On that fourth line, we have a very important roster battle: Stefan Noesen is directly competing with Jesper Boqvist for the 12th or 13th forward spot. Unless both of them shine in conjunction with the front office deciding to roll with only two goalies for the season, this is going to be one of the bigger deciding factors in who makes the roster and who gets waived to Utica. For that reason, I would not be surprised if we eventually saw that the fourth line plays this game at a much higher intensity level than the top three lines.

Your Thoughts

What do you think of tonight’s game? How many extracurricular activities will there be? Who are you looking forward to seeing? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

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