Gerard Gallant wants Rangers to ‘pepper’ Devils’ rookie goalie with more shots

Before they squared off with the Rangers in the 1994 conference final, the Devils fell behind two games to none against the Bruins in the second round.

Martin Brodeur was in goal for the Devils in those first two contests, but they ended up pivoting to Chris Terreri in response to a pair of one-goal defeats.

The Devils went on to win the next four straight to advance to the next round, where the Rangers ultimately beat them in seven games.

That’s not to say the Devils’ decision to replace Vitek Vanecek with rookie Akira Schmid in Game 3 after losing the first two to the Rangers this time around will definitely have the same outcome as their 1994 series against Boston, but the club took a step in that direction with a 2-1 overtime win Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

“Pepper,” Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said Sunday of what his team should’ve done more of against the Devils rookie netminder. “More shots, no doubt. More people to the front of the net. That’s what we talked about. I thought the first 10 [minutes] we passed up a lot of those chances and didn’t take advantage of that early. It got better during the game, but you’ve got to do it for 60 minutes and get there.”

Schmid, who the Devils drafted 136th overall in 2018, made just four starts for the NHL club in 2021-22 and spent a majority of that season with AHL Utica.

He spent most of this year’s campaign in the minors, as well, aside from some stretches of NHL play in late November, mid-December and early March with a few extra appearances sprinkled throughout.

This season, the Swiss netminder went 9-5-2 with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.

Schmid is still technically a rookie despite having parts of two NHL seasons on his résumé, but the Rangers couldn’t tell the difference in the 2-1 overtime loss Saturday night at the Garden.

“Maybe he gets rattled, maybe he doesn’t,” Vincent Trocheck said when asked if the Rangers should put more emphasis on overwhelming an inexperienced netminder competing in his first playoffs. “I think we’ve got to play the same way, either way. Try to get in his face, get a little bit more traffic in front of him and shoot more pucks. I think we passed up a few too many shot opportunities [Saturday] night.”

Chris Kreider is just two power-play goals away from matching the NHL’s record for the most in a single series, a mark set by former Ranger forward Chris Kontos in the 1989 Division Semifinals vs. the Kings.

He is also five shy of the NHL record for the most in a playoff year, which is shared by Mike Bossy (1981) and Cam Neely (1991).