SUNRISE, Fla. — It’s become an annual rite of passage, like daylight saving time, but instead of turning their clocks forward an hour each spring, the Rangers are taking another year away from winning the Stanley Cup.
It’s been 31 years since the Rangers last made it up the Canyon of Heroes. They were a very good team through the first two rounds of the playoffs this year, but couldn’t keep it going against a bigger, stronger, more physical team in the conference finals.
No disgrace. This is nothing like last year’s behind-closed-doors loss to the Devils. The Rangers gave it their all on the ice in this six-game series, but they were brutally outplayed, outplayed and outgunned in the first three games by a Panthers team that improved by winning the final three games of the conference finals.
In fact, the Rangers gave it their all on the ice all season, finishing with the best record in the league and reaching the conference finals for the second time in three years.
They just weren’t good enough, just like they were when they lost to Tampa Bay in six games two years ago, even if that unexpected winning streak had a different feel to it.
The Panthers went on to win Game 6 on Saturday with a 2-1 victory, sending Florida to its second straight Cup final after losing five straight to Las Vegas last June. The Rangers weren’t forced to spend as much time in the zone as they had in the previous three games as the ice tilted dramatically in the Blueshirts’ Game 3 overtime win, but they couldn’t generate any meaningful scoring chances against Sergei Bobrovsky.
In fact, the Blueshirts scored five goals in their final three games — one on the power play, one shorthanded, one at 5-on-5 and two at 6-on-5 with an extra attacker — including a late goal by Artemi Panarin at 18:20 of the third period that put the team within one.
“I would say we were a good team that gave it our all,” said Panarin, who scored his first goal of the series and fifth of the tournament with a shot over Bobrovsky’s shoulder late in the game. “This was a very close game.”
Panarin noted that maybe the Rangers should have played like they did in the final five minutes when they tried to surround the zone, but Florida broke off play after play through the neutral zone on the rare occasions when the Rangers were able to get out of their own half with any consistency.
The Rangers hired players throughout the year. They were the team with the best coaching staff on Broadway in decades. They asked for a coach after last spring’s debacle and new manager Peter Laviolette and his staff responded from start to finish. They were one of the best four teams in the 32-team NHL division.
During the third period of the Rangers’ season-ending loss. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
It’s not everything, but it’s not nothing either.
“These guys have fought this year. They’ve given it their all from the beginning,” Laviolette said. “They’ve fought and they’ve gotten to this point. When you start a game like this, it’s disappointing. You’re not playing to win three or five games in the playoffs, you’re playing to make it all the way, so of course it’s disappointing.”
“Our entire intentions throughout the year were to avoid what we’re feeling right now. None of us ever expected to be in this situation.”
The Rangers are built to certain specifications. The Rangers are power-play-based. The Panthers spiked it, squashing 14 of New York’s 15 advantages. Their impenetrable first unit was overwhelmed most of the time. And while not unique to this series, the Blueshirts hit just 2 of 25 times in their final 10 games of the tournament. Laviolette didn’t try to mix up personnel.
Chris Kreider was at a loss for words after his elimination record dropped to 20-10. The “10” represented the 10 seasons that No. 20 Kreider made the playoffs with the Rangers. He recovered to analyze the series, but he was disappointed in 2012 at age 21, in 2017 at age 26 and now he’s disappointed at age 33.
Kreider barely made an impact in the series, only scoring a shorthanded goal in Game 5. Mika Zibanded barely made an impact in the series either, failing to record a goal. Panarin scored one goal. Adam Fox didn’t score in the playoffs. K’Andre Miller struggled. So did Jacob Trouba.
Incidentally, Miller and Trouba were the only Rangers defensemen to score goals in the postseason, and both were undermanned. That’s incredible.
The Rangers couldn’t get inside, just like they couldn’t get inside against the Lightning in 2022. Some may be able to detect a pattern, some may even acknowledge that size matters as much as it has in the past when it comes to the playoffs.
In the end, the Rangers were eliminated from the playoffs, but this should never happen again.
There weren’t enough people. There weren’t enough teams. The wait will be 31 years. The weight will be 31 years.
The Rangers did themselves, their fans and their city proud this season. They gave it their all on the ice. They just weren’t good enough, they weren’t big enough.
Please wait until someday…
