There’s no sympathy from the Devils. They want the Rangers to miss the playoffs.
“If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s a good thing,” defenseman Paul Martin said. “It’s a big rivalry. They don’t want us to win, and we don’t want them to win.”
The Devils have a chance, with any Atlanta loss, to clinch their 13th straight playoff berth when they play host to their trans-Hudson rivals tonight in Newark. They can also put another nail in the Rangers’ prefab coffin, and they’re practicing their carpentry. The Rangers ripped the Islanders, 5-0, last night to move within five points of the eighth-place Bruins.
“Getting the center of attention for hockey would be nice for us,” Martin Brodeur said. “It goes two ways. One, it would be nice for hockey. We want to grow it and there would be more attention.
“But they’re eating our fan base, and if they’re not there, it’s better for us,” he added. “And I wouldn’t count them out. They have a lot of good players.”
New Jersey reached 90 points for the 13th straight season with Tuesday’s 6-3 triumph over Columbus, when Ilya Kovalchuk tied a team record with their first four-point period in more than nine years.
The Devils are 3-2 against the Rangers, the difference being the Devils’ 1-0 shootout victory Jan. 12. Jersey chased Henrik Lundqvist in a 6-3 triumph in Newark March 10, part of the 7-1-1 home tear that makes up for New Jersey’s road woes.
It might be more important for the Devils to remain in the form they displayed Tuesday, as they try to shake the funk that has left them with 11 victories in 28 (11-14-3). It was that 1-0 shootout victory over the Rangers that marked their high-water mark at 32-11-1.
It would be hard to blame the Devils if they have had enough of being the second-choice on the metropolitan hockey pecking order, considering their accomplishments compared with those of the Rangers.
“When we lose, it’s not fun for the fans and it’s not fun for us either, because we have to hear it,” Brodeur said. “Trust me. We have kids going to the hockey rinks, and with the parents, there are a lot of Rangers [fans] around us.
“It’s a pride factor,” he added. “That’s the beauty of hockey. The rivalries are there for a reason. It makes it interesting. With rivalries, it doesn’t even matter how good your are or how good a season you’ve had. It’s fun to get up for these games.”
Even those who want to say the politic thing can’t avoid letting their feelings out.
“It’s more important that we go into the playoffs playing well,” Dainius Zubrus said. “Along the way, if they [the Rangers] don’t make it, good. I don’t wish bad for others as much as good for ourselves.”
Then he came clean.
“Don’t get me wrong. We don’t like them,” Zubrus said. “I don’t like them.”
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The Devils visit Montreal Saturday and Philadelphia Sunday. . . . New Jersey is 12-7-1 vs. the Atlantic Division, and 6-2-1 at home. . . . Patrik Elias was the last to have a four-point period, in the 2000-01 season. . . . Elias and Zach Parise each had three-point games Tuesday.