Get ready Devils fans. Get ready to hear it. About what a joke franchise we are. We cant fill our building. We have no fans. How there is just no way we can beat the powerhouse Rangers.

I have heard this for years. But this year will be different. While watching the Capitals Rangers game 7, I thought like most fans, the Rangers would be waiting for us in round 3. That means a blueshirt invasion at the Rock. Loudmouth New Yorkers. They'll be drunk, there will be fights, and a massive media microscope on this series, as it is a bigger attraction then the WCF.

Winning in the playoff is great. Beating New York makes it epic, The same goes for losing. There is an extra pain to losing to your most hated rivals. Jeering and taunts. Not to mention we would have to potentially see a Rangers cup. Its like a solar eclipse. It comes around every 70 years or so, but when it does you hear about it.

How do the Devils win? Who needs to step up? After the jump well figure all this out.

Lets go

1. Pace- The Rangers play five D men. They play 3 of them huge minutes. Ryan McDonagh, Mark Staal, and Dan Girardi are on the ice more then they are not. This will catch up to them. The Devils need to roll four lines, not play the Dale Hunter line matching game. It needs to be up tempo. Use that week of rest to your advantage. Old time hockey. Eddie Shore!
2. Paging Mr Elias- Patty is after Randy McKay and Marty as my favorite Devil and his decade+ of consistent play makes it hard to criticize him but we need more from Elias. The Rangers cant score like the Devils can.If Elias is on his game, Tortorellas face gets that much redder, and it becomes that much harder to contain the offense.
3. Forecheck- We unleashed on the Flyers, a hellish forecheck they could not deal with. This needs to continue in spades. This will only tire the Rangers D, and when there not diving all over the ice, will be on the boards. PDB has gained my trust and i dont see him abandoning what got him here.
4. Marty be Marty- At this point in their respective careers, the Rangers have the advantage in goal. Its true. Sad but true. We dont need Martin to hold the Rangers to 7 goals in 5 games. It be nice but he isnt that guy anymore. What he still can and needs to do, is play the puck, smartly and often. Even with the ridiculous trapezoid, the man many see as the best to play the nets can still dissect opposing forechecks easily. ( This is what i believe we will miss the most in the post Marty years) He needs to eliminate any chance the Rangers have of a dump and chase game. They already know they cant score at a good clip, so keep putting doubt in there minds. Nothing easy.
5. Give Zajac big minutes- I believe should we get to the promise land, Mr Zajac will be handed the MVP. He has had a great playoffs and is one of our few faceoff guys that win at a good clip. He missed a big chunk of the year with injury, so now is the time to put the pedal on the ground. Give him 22 mins a night +. He is one of the reasons we have gotten here, and unlike Kovy, he is very rarely a defensive liability. Let him get it done. Trust in Zajac and let him show the whole NHL that he is a top line talent. He can be the vital part of winning, because you know as we speak, Red face angry hockey dad ( Torts) is telling his team to contain Kovy and Zach. Lets show them why they cant run with us, DEPTH