Monday's NHL playoffs: Devils blank Rangers in Game 7
Newark, N.J. – Unexpected hero Akira Schmid rebounded from his only bad game and made 31 saves in Game 7 to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 4-0 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night in an entertaining first-round playoff series.
Michael McLeod and Tomas Tatar scored second-period goals in the series decider and Erik Haula and Jesper Bratt added insurance goals in the third in the game between the long-time Hudson River rivals.
Coming off a franchise best 52-win season, the Devils will open the Eastern Conference semifinals on Wednesday against the Metropolitan Division-winning Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is on Friday night.
Igor Shesterkin was outstanding in defeat, stopping 20 shots, including Jack Hughes' breakaway late in a scoreless first period.
Schmid who had played in a total of 24 regular season games, was the difference in this series, posting two shutouts. After New York had a pair of 5-1 wins in the opening two games in New Jersey against starter Vitek Vanecek, Devils coach Lindy Ruff switched to the 22-year-old Swiss netminder.
Over the next five games, Schmid went 4-1, allowing a total of two goals in his first three games, including a 4-0 shutout in Game 5. He was driven from the net in Game 6 of a 5-2 loss in Madison Square Garden after giving up all five goals, but the Devils went with him in Game 7 and he delivered.
Schmid stopped a pair of Mike Zibanejad power-play blasts in the first period and made a great glove save on Vincent Trocheck with the score still 2-0 in the third period.
New Jersey broke things open midway through the second period on plays set up by playoff veteran Ondrej Palat and defenseman John Marino.
With the Rangers about to go on a power play, Palat, who won two Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay, outworked a slipping Chris Kreider and star defenseman Adam Fox along the right boards for a loose puck. He skated toward the net, slid a pass under a sliding Zibanejad and found McLeod, who patiently skated around Shesterkin and deposited a backhander into an empty net at 9:53 for a short-handed goal. It was his first goal since January.
Marino took a cross-ice pass from Nico Hischier at the Rangers' right point later in the period, swept in on Shesterkin and had the puck slide off his stick to the corner. He retrieved it, and threw a blind pass toward the crease that found Tartar for quick shot into the net at 15:39.
Haula scored his fourth goal of the series with 5:33 left in the third period to send the send the crowd into a frenzy. Bratt added an empty-net goal with 3:19 to go and the series was all but over.
Schmid and Shesterkin were the story of the scoreless opening period. Shesterkin stopped Hughes on a breakaway with three minutes left in the period while Schmid stopped Zibanejad twice during New York's three extra-man chances in the opening 20.
Flames fire coach Sutter
The Calgary Flames started the 2022-23 season making a long-term commitment to head coach Darryl Sutter, and ended it looking for a different voice behind the bench.
The Flames fired Sutter on Monday in the latest major change at the NHL club after a disappointing season. Sutter’s dismissal comes 11 months after being the winner of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.
“I interviewed 25 players, coaches, coaching staff, training staff, spoke to prominent agents who represent key players on our team, and it became clear to me that we need a new voice to guide us forward,” Flames president of hockey operations and interim general manager Don Maloney said.
One year after winning the Pacific Division and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flames fell to fifth in the division and missed the postseason with a 38-27-17 record.
“The players were very, very frustrated with the season,” Maloney said at a Monday news conference. “They truly believe we had a team good enough to be in the playoffs.”
Sutter’s departure comes two weeks after former Flames general manager Brad Treliving turned down a contract extension and parted ways with the team.
“The players of today, they want a voice, they have a voice, and you have to listen to that voice,” Maloney said. “You don’t want to make it that the inmates are running the asylum, so to speak, but they had some real observations on, in their minds, how we should move forward.”
Known for his gruff, no-nonsense approach, Sutter took heat at various times through last season.
After tying for second in league scoring in 2021-22 with 115 points as a member of the Florida Panthers, Jonathan Huberdeau’s production plummeted by 60 points.
“Darryl is a very sharp man, he’s got a good hockey mind,” Maloney said. “He’s a firm coach, a hard coach, a demanding coach, and there’s a shelf life to that type of type of coaching. Obviously it felt his time had expired with us.”
Huberdeau, along with defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, came to the Flames in a blockbuster trade last summer for Matthew Tkachuk after the star forward said he wouldn’t sign long term in Calgary.
Shortly after being acquired, Huberdeau signed a eight-year extension for $115 million that kicks in next season.
“We underachieved and generally, underachieving doesn’t make for happy days,” said Maloney. “We’re optimistic when we hire the next manager and coach, we will have a new attitude in the sense of it’s a new beginning for a lot of players, including some of our players who had difficult seasons this year. “