Stanley Cup Playoffs - Lack of Depth Catches Up to Rangers When the final blow to their psyche had been dealt and the Devils charged into one corner of the Prudential Center rink to celebrate madly Friday night, the Rangers fell to their knees in front of the net, staring off in a different direction. Their stunned expressions said they had no idea how Adam Henrique had poked home the winning goal in a goal-mouth scramble, how the Devils had ended their season in overtime of Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. The view from close up, it turns out, was the worst view of all. From their vantage point, the Rangers could not see how the tables had been turned on them in this series, could not understand how the Devils had become the better team by being faster and deeper, how the grinding style that earned the Rangers the No. 1 seed in the playoffs would no longer serve to make them so dangerous in the playoffs. "It just doesn't seem right for it to be over," goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. When it's over, it's such an empty feeling. The Rangers believe they were constructed just right for these playoffs, their roster and philosophy having been remade over and over in the years since their last Stanley Cup in 1994. The Devils had been among their victims then, but had gone on to even greater things nonetheless - three Stanley Cups and a consistency the Rangers could barely dream of. The Devils built that dynasty out of a stifling defense, an all-world goalie and a sort of institutional stubbornness that the Rangers could never begin to muster until, they thought, this year. Now, the Rangers had the all-world goalie and the stifling defensive style, turning games into grinding affairs, blocking every shot they could throw a body in front of. It was often ugly and it was straight out of the Devils" playbook. What they did not notice was that the Devils are not using that playbook anymore. These Devils, pivoting to overcome the malaise that gripped the roster the last several years, are now built on speed and relentless forechecking. They have an impressive four lines that contribute offensively as well as defensively. Perhaps most surprisingly, their once all-world goalie, that one Devils link to 1994, Martin Brodeur, was not even much of a factor in this series. He never stole a game and made but a handful of saves that would be considered for his long career highlight reel. Look closely and you'll find two teams in the Stanley Cup finals that look very much alike. The Los Angeles Kings are perhaps the fastest team in the league, with depth that did not just wear down their Western Conference opponents, but overwhelmed them. By Game 6 against the Devils, the Rangers looked spent. It showed in their legs and in faulty decisions. The Rangers had spent most of the series chasing their speedier opponent, and when they fell behind - by 2-0 in this game and by 3-0 in Game 5 - their already limited bench got even shorter. In the third period Friday, when they needed a go-ahead goal, they leaned on only two lines, and only the Ryan Callahan-Brandon Dubinsky-Artem Anisimov line had any jump left in it. The group of Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin was on the ice and caught flat-footed when the Devils won in overtime. For the last several games Coach John Tortorella railed against the idea that his team was tired, but the Rangers defied his defiance by looking tired as the Devils again raced to a two-goal lead. Their once-exhausting style of play was now exhausting only them. "I don't think that had anything to do with it at all," Gaborik said of the fatigue question, but he did acknowledge that the Devils had more to throw at them. "Their strength is the forecheck," he added. They were quick. They got chances off the forecheck. We knew what we were facing, but the last two games I think we were way better. It just wasn't enough. The Rangers" flaws, though, showed up early in the playoffs. Lost in the gutsiness of the comebacks to win the series against the Capitals and the Senators was the fact that the Rangers never could dictate the play in those series. They scrambled, yes, and got some otherworldly games from Lundqvist and some clutch goals. In the first round against the Senators they were getting big contributions from depth players like forward Brian Boyle, but by the time it came to face the Devils, even that had faded away. Gaborik, the Rangers" best scorer, was tailing off, too, having scored only one goal against the Devils after a three-goal, four-assist performance in the second round. In contrast, the Devils had managed to get their momentum going in the opposite direction. They started slowly, needing seven games to get past Florida in the first round, but they started to find their groove in knocking out Philadelphia. "We've just been getting better and better," Devils Coach Peter DeBoer said. We were a little tentative through the first round against Florida. I thought we really found another level against Philly and we needed another level against the Rangers with the team they had. So we're trending in the right direction. Even Callahan, one of the few Rangers who still seemed to be playing on all cylinders at the end, acknowledged that the Devils were the better team. "They're going to the finals for a reason," Callahan said. They come at you, they forecheck, they hold on to pucks, they're a good team over there. The Rangers are now left to contemplate whether they are a good enough team to keep together going forward. "I really like what we have here," Tortorella said after Game 6. I don't think it'll be the same. There's always changes, but what our group has developed in our identity, their mind-set, I think, showed tonight. We didn't get it done, but I just like the way they handled themselves. They did not see the end coming until it arrived.