It was not so much hype as it was a sense of anticipation. A year ago, for the first time ever, the first two overall selections in the NHL draft went to teams stationed about six miles apart, and we wouldn’t all get a treat to watch the rivalry develop between the Devils No. 1, Jack Hughes, and No. 2 of the Rangers, Kaapo Kakko?
Well, of course, the future is all for the two 19-year-olds, which is pretty good considering their lone season of NHL past added to the biggest combined one-two statistical flop in more than two decades.
Hughes, who was an early top-six center at the age of 18, scored 21 points (7-14) for the Devils, while Kakko, who struggled to assimilate into the North American game, scored 23 (10 -23) placed on the other side. side of the Hudson.
You have to go all the way back to 1997 to find a draft where the two best overall selections were both position players and combined for fewer points in the year immediately after selection than Hughes and Kakko.
But you know what? If Hughes and Kakko follow the first two overall squads of that year, the Devils and Rangers will meet on a ferry in the middle of the Hudson and dance all night long.
Because in 1997 Joe Thornton was first overall, heading to the Hall of Fame despite a 3-4 = 7 rookie season in Boston under head coach Pat Burns, who made the center healthy more than 20 times.
And in 1997, the second overall roster was Patrick Marleau, heading to the Hall of Fame after a more representative freshman season in which he scored 32 points (13-19) to collect 39 points for the athletes who, 23 seasons later, are still always in the competition.
And let me tell you, Hughes danced all night at the Garden on Thursday, scoring a few goals and an assist in a dazzling performance to team up with 47-save goalkeeper MacKenzie Blackwood in the Devils’ 4-3 win.
The young man added muscle power to his body with diligent off-season work that allowed him to fight in those 50-50 areas, but Hughes just kept moving his feet. He was dynamic and quicksilver, on tiptoe as he thrived under head coach Lindy Ruff, who spent the past three years working as an assistant on the other side of the Hudson.
“My confidence is clearly high,” said Hughes, who has six points (2-4) across three games. ‘I think it’s always been high, you know, but we build and I build personally.
“Lindy wants me to play a fast game, 60 yards, and he believes I can play against all four lines. So for me it’s better that I go play when our line has the puck and is offended, so that’s part of my game, chasing the puck and pickpocketing. “
Hughes scored on a tap-in from the goal line when a shot from a shaky Alexandar Georgiev flipped into the fold to give the Devils a 2-1 lead at 4:13 from second, just 1:23 after the Rangers had balanced the score. Hughes got his second on a breakaway and rushed in on the left for a backhand tuck through the five holes, after blocking a shot from Jacob Trouba on the point, for a 3-1 lead at 8:38. Then, after the Blueshirts closed to 3-2, Hughes found Miles Wood on the right porch with a brilliant diagonal look at the 4-2 goal on the power play at 4:00 PM.
“The puck found me,” Hughes said, as if he were little more than an innocent bystander. “It was a good time for our line. We have to keep that rolling. “
Kakko meanwhile did not score a point, but he played a strong game. Indeed, the Finn rose for a 21-6 try advantage in 11:22 five-to-five times when he and linemates Filip Chytil (22-8) and Phillip DiGiuseppe checked the game under the hash marks for shifts at the same time . . Kakko struggled on opening night, but he looked comfortable with the puck and confident without it.
He was a bright spot in this one on a night when the Rangers got a pair of power play goals from big boys Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, but few of their top points at equal strength. According to Naturalstattrick.com, Ryan Strome, who has a tremendous amount of time underway, was somehow on the ice for just one Rangers five-on-five shots at 12:48. That seems impossible.
It’s still early. Early in the season, impossibly early in the careers of Hughes and Kakko, who are out to prove last year was a deviation and that the future is all ahead of them.
The present has been pretty good for Hughes.