The New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers handled their initial games after clinching a playoff berth in significantly different ways.

Because of those dramatically different results, the race for second place in the Metropolitan Division and home ice in the first round of a possible playoff series between the rivals is even closer heading into the final meeting Thursday night in Newark, N.J.

New Jersey (46-20-8, 100 points) holds a two-point lead over the Rangers (44-20-10, 98 points) partially because it is 2-0-1 in the season series.

The Devils earned a 5-3 win in New York on Nov. 28 and the Rangers posted a 4-3 overtime victory on home ice Dec. 12. New Jersey recorded a 4-3 overtime win on Jan. 7 when it erased a two-goal deficit and Damon Severson scored the game-winner to stop an eight-game home losing streak.

The Devils clinched their first playoff spot since 2018 with a 5-3 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Two nights later, New Jersey was handed its most lopsided loss of the season when it allowed four straight goals following a short-handed tally by Erik Haula in a 5-1 loss to the host New York Islanders.

“I think that we clinched a spot (last game), and I don’t know if our group dealt with that,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “It’s a learning experience. You’re excited about where you got to, but you’ve got to put it away in a hurry and I didn’t think we put it away in a hurry.”

Since a 3-0 home win over the first-place Carolina Hurricanes on March 12, the Devils are 2-4-2 over their past eight contests, a stretch where they have allowed four goals five times. New Jersey also was held to one goal for the ninth time Monday and third time since its win over Carolina.

The Rangers were seven points behind the Devils following a 4-1 loss at Boston on March 4 in their second game with Patrick Kane. Since then New York is 9-1-1 over its past 11 games with the past seven wins coming in regulation to give both teams 34 regulation victories.

New York has scored 34 goals over its past seven victories, including Tuesday’s 6-2 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Filip Chytil, Vladimir Tarasenko and Kane scored in a span of 3:37 in the first period and the Rangers scored the final three goals to pull away from the NHL’s worst team after allowing two goals in the final half of the opening period.

“Listen MSG is an amazing place to play. I think it’s a big advantage to have home ice,” Kane said after he and Tarasenko scored in the same game for the first time. “We have that in front of us now if we do what we need to do. It’ll be a big game coming up.”

Also in front of both teams but not so far away are the Hurricanes, who are three points ahead of New Jersey and five ahead of New York. Carolina has nine games remaining and 35 regulation victories.

“Thursday should be a lot of fun,” New York coach Gerard Gallant said. “Two teams battling, and I think we’re two points behind them. There’s still seven or eight games left, but it goes a long way Thursday night.”

–Field Level Media

The Boston Bruins are in the midst of an incredibly busy stretch at the end of a historic NHL season, playing 13 games in 25 days with five straight weekend back-to-backs.

But that will be no excuse when the grind of the Stanley Cup Playoffs begins next month.

The jam-packed schedule appeared to take a toll Tuesday in Boston’s 2-1 defeat to the Nashville Predators.

“This is probably the toughest schedule I’ve ever seen or been part of, but we obviously took them lightly,” Bruins forward Brad Marchand said after the loss to the Predators. “We seem to get up for the games (against) the teams we could potentially face down the road, and I think we just were a little disrespectful of the game tonight against this team.”

The Bruins (57-12-5, 119 points) will look to avoid back-to-back regulation losses for only the second time all season Thursday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are at the bottom of the overall NHL standings.

As a result of Carolina’s 4-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday, the Bruins can clinch the Presidents’ Trophy with a win over the Blue Jackets, whom they have beaten five straight times dating back to last season.

“You’re going to have peaks and valleys with your energy levels,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We try to monitor it the best we can, but the schedule’s unforgiving right now. You’re going to lay eggs every once in a while.”

Only eight Presidents’ Trophy winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup since the trophy was first awarded in 1985-86.

Of course, the home-ice advantage throughout the postseason that comes with the trophy will help the cause.

“I don’t think we’re too concerned about records or anything like that,” Marchand said. “The opportunity to have home ice the whole playoffs would be nice, but again, if we take care of our job and we’re prepared to play the rest of the games, we’ll be alright.”

Against Nashville, Boston was 0.3 seconds away from being shut out for only the second time this season. David Pastrnak scored his 52nd goal, extending his career-high mark.

The Blue Jackets (23-43-7, 53 points) are 3-8-1 since the start of the month after allowing three first-period goals and the final three goals of the game in Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers.

“The whole game they battled really hard,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “It’s a head scratcher. You look at it, 6-2, it’s not that you’re satisfied, but there’s not many guys where you can say they didn’t give it tonight.”

Columbus has allowed four or more goals in every March game.

Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and an assist for Columbus, joining current Ranger Artemi Panarin as the second player in Blue Jackets history to reach the 50-assist plateau in his first season with the franchise.

Kirill Marchenko scored his 20th goal of the season.

Nine players in the Blue Jackets’ Tuesday lineup had played fewer than 100 NHL games. Among them, defenseman Billy Sweezey was recalled from AHL Cleveland on Monday and could play his third career game less than an hour from his hometown of Hanson, Mass.

–Field Level Media