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Rangers lose rough battle to one rival and now the Isles are next

Joseph Blandisi scores on Antti Raanta for the game-winning goal in the Rangers' 3-2 loss to the Devils on Tuesday night.

You never would have known from watching that this Battle of the Hudson was a low-stakes match — with Rangers all but assured of the East’s first wild-card spot and the Devils on the precipice of a fifth straight playoff miss with fewer than three weeks remaining on the schedule.

For this one in Newark raged as if the combatants included Mark Messier, Alex Kovalev and Brian Leetch on one side and Scott Stevens, Johnny MacLean and Martin Brodeur on the other.