It had been 151 days since the Rangers last saw the Devils.

The first-round playoff series between the teams had just come to an end, and the Devils emerged victorious with a shutout win in Game 7.

The Devils asserted themselves over the Rangers in the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

But on Thursday night, a new season began for the cross-Hudson rivalry as the Devils took a 3-2 win over the Rangers in their third preseason contest at Madison Square Garden.

The tug of war for superiority between the clubs continues.

Whether the Rangers can regain dominance over the Devils this season remains to be seen.

“I think just not playing to the level that we knew we could,” defenseman K’Andre Miller told The Post before the game regarding his assessment of what went wrong in the postseason series. “Obviously, those first two games, we were all over them. Dominant. Dictating the pace of play. I think we got away from that and it obviously showed.

“Maybe [we] got a little complacent in Games 3 and 4, and by then it was a little bit, I think, too late to turn the momentum or shift the tide.”

The pendulum of power has swung between the Rangers and Devils for years.

Before last season, when the Devils finished in second (112 points) and the Rangers took third (107 points) in the Metropolitan Division regular-season standings, the Blueshirts had placed higher than New Jersey in 11 of the previous 12 campaigns.

And before that, the Devils had finished ahead of the Rangers in 13 straight seasons beginning in 1996-97.

Now, they appear to be headed into a unique window with both teams as legitimate playoff contenders.

Four months and 28 days may have passed since the teams met on the same ice, but not much seemed to change.

Devils netminder Akira Schmid, who gave the Rangers fits in the playoffs, extended his shutout streak to 89:15 against the home team Thursday night — albeit the fact that it was in the preseason.

The 23-year-old rookie stopped all 19 shots he faced in 29:20 of ice time.

There was no love lost between the clubs, either.

Chris Kreider held on to a doubled-over Devils defenseman Kevin Bahl at one point, while Alexis Lafreniere exchanged pleasantries with Simon Nemec.

Both organizations saw their fair share of offseason additions and subtractions, but at the core, they’re relatively the same teams which clashed in the first round last season.

The only major difference is behind the Rangers’ bench.

Understandably, new head coach Peter Laviolette politely declined to get into what he saw when he was watching the Rangers-Devils series as a third-party observer.

“I know that they’re two good, capable teams that went seven games,” said before the game. “I’ve been involved in seven-game wins and losses and I know they’re tough. When you lose and you’re hoping or expecting or think you’re in a position to win and then you don’t. I don’t know if it’s right for me to criticize or critique it.

“I’m excited about [Thursday night] and this group and the journey that we have in front of us to try to get back to that point where we can look at our first-round opponent, put the whole year’s work into place and say, ‘Here we go. Here we are.’ ”