Pregame Chatter: Rangers' Rupp, a Former Devil, Plays Down the Rivalry The morning before Game 1 at Madison Square Garden on Monday, Mike Rupp, the only former Devil on the Rangers" roster, was asked about the rivalry between the teams. He remembered his first experience with it, when he joined the Devils during 2002-3 season. It took place at the Meadowlands during a game against the Florida Panthers, oddly enough, when the fans started a vulgar chant about the Rangers. "That's when I said, "Wow, there must be something to this,"" said Rupp, who spent five seasons with the Devils. Rupp smiled at that memory, and he has also spoken about playing for the Devils at the Meadowlands and looking up to see as many blue sweaters in the stands as red ones. But for the players at this stage of the postseason, he said, the Battle of the Hudson aspect is meaningless. "At this point in the playoffs it's more for the fans and the media to have fun with than us," he said. We're just trying to win four games. Didn't Rupp, in his first season as a Ranger, think it was even a little special for him to be playing the Devils now, given that he scored the goal that clinched them the Stanley Cup in 2003? With all the hoopla surrounding the first Rangers-Devils conference finals matchup since 1994? "If you're in the first round, maybe it'd matter a little more, if that makes sense at all," Rupp said. But right now you're four wins away from getting to where you've been working so hard to get to as a team. So I don't really think about that, I really don't. I really don't look at me once playing for them, or them being one of our biggest rivals. That's kind of nonexistent right now. "Right now is about winning hockey games," he added. Doesn't matter who it's against. It's not like all of a sudden because it's New Jersey we're going to play harder or play better. That didn't seem to be so during the regular season, when three Rangers-Devils games devolved into fistfights within four seconds of the opening faceoff. Would any of that carry over into this playoff series? "I don't know," said Rupp, who was involved in three fights against the Devils this season. Those are just kind of moments that happen. You don't plan for those things. Right now there's a lot bigger things than rivalries and battles like that. While Rupp didn't seem to think the Rangers and Devils would fight, such things are not unheard of at the semifinal stage of the playoffs. In 2011, there was a fight in the East finals between Boston and Tampa Bay and in the West finals between Vancouver and San Jose. There were none in 2010, but in 2009 a late-game brawl spiced up the Carolina-Pittsburgh series, and there were two fights in the 2008 Penguins-Flyers conference finals and one in the 2007 Ducks-Red Wings series.