Devils roast the Rangers following 5-0 beat down today

UPDATE: The Devils continue to stick it to the Rangers after today's 5-0 drubbing. Check out this savage social media post by the Devils towards the Rangers following today's game:

Look closely and you can see Peter Laviolette jump from the burning dumpster...

Things have just gone from bad to worse for the New York Rangers.

With the Rangers going 1-4 in their last five games, today's matchup against divisional rival New Jersey Devils should have proved to be a good test of mettle. Unfortunately for the Rangers, they failed the test dreadfully.

Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette elected to make veteran leader Chris Kreider a healthy scratch for today's game in an attempt to generate some emotion from his players. The move backfired however and the Rangers laid a Christmas Goose of an egg in New Jersey, losing 5-0.

To add insult to injury the Devils' in-house media team played a cringe-worthy clip of Rangers fans cheering on the Devil's draft choice of Jack Hughes back in 2019. Of course, with the Devils drafting #1 and the Rangers drafting #2 back in 2019, the Hughes selection guaranteed that the Rangers could draft Kaapo Kakko. In hindsight, that's a tough look.

Hughes is an NHL superstar and Kakko is now in Seattle after five mediocre seasons with the Rangers.

That's a big yikes...

The best part?

Hughes reacts in real time to the video, smiling and laughing while fans cheer him on.

Check it out:

You know things are bad in New York when not only are Devils fans laughing at you, but the players are too.

Double yikes...

Read below for our earlier report on the Rangers' decision to scratch Kreider, published by Hockey Feed staff writer Jonathan Larrivee.

The New York Rangers appear to be imploding before our very eyes.

On Monday, the team made what I can only describe as the latest shocking move in a long series of shocking moves when they made veteran National Hockey League forward Chris Kreider a healthy scratch.

The Rangers are set to face off against the New Jersey Devils in an early afternoon game before the Christmas break, but it looks like Kreider will benefit from an extended vacation and perhaps one that he would not have wanted.

The Rangers have found themselves plummeting down the Metropolitan Division standings in recent weeks and despite several significant moves the team has been unable to find its way. We have already seen the Rangers trade away their captain when they sent veteran defenseman Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks and we've also seen them trade away former first round pick Kaapo Kakko when they shipped him off to the Seattle Kraken. Interestingly enough the Kakko trade was preceded by that player being placed on the sidelines as a healthy scratch as well.

It is unclear at this time if the Rangers intend to pull off yet another trade in season or if they are simply once again looking to send a message to the players in their locker room, but the one thing that is certain is that this latest move is sure to cause a great deal of controversy among the Rangers fan base.

Kreider is currently in year 5 of a 7 year deal that sees him earning an average annual value of $6.5 million per season, and as a well respected NHL veteran, and one of the Rangers very best players in recent years, I suspect there would be a great deal of demand for his services if he were indeed to end up being traded.

The Rangers can't pull off any trades right now due to the NHL's holiday roster freeze, but this is a situation definitely worth keeping an eye on.