The Rangers have rediscovered their resilience since shutting and locking the door in 2024 and throwing the key into the Hudson River.
The result was a 10-game point streak that redeemed the season and pushed the team into the thick of the Eastern Conference wild card race, but they lost 5-4 to the Avalanche at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon. The flow stopped. And it reminded me that resilience alone has its limits.
The Rangers were seconds away from extending their scoring streak, but Artturi Lehkonen's goal with 14.7 seconds left in regulation time sealed the victory for the Abs.
This was the first of two tough contests against the Avalanche and Hurricanes, two teams involved in one of the NHL's biggest blockbuster deals for some time. Two clubs with legitimate Stanley Cup ambitions are making big moves to improve their chances.
The Rangers failed to make it past the Eastern Conference Finals, and after a near-disastrous loss earlier this season, there's no question that they're more than a game or two away from achieving that goal.
It's different when you play a high-powered Colorado team that has game-changing skaters like Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon. Incidentally, the pair combined for two goals and three assists.
A weak clearance attempt by Artemi Panarin led to Juuse Parshinen's one-timer and a shot under the glove of Igor Shesterkin to give the Avs a 4-2 lead in the center frame.
In his first game since signing a five-year, $20.5 million extension with the Rangers, Will Borgen pounced on a loose puck in the crease to cut the Avs' lead to 4-4 at the 18:05 mark of the second period. It was shortened to 3.
However, Panarin made up for it with just under five minutes left in regulation. On a night when the score was tied at 4-4, Panarin grabbed a long rebound for his 21st goal of the season.
The Rangers could have erased a two-goal deficit by two, but they couldn't finish the job.
The Avalanche came out on top in an eventful first period, scoring a total of five goals.
With his uncle, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury looking on, Jack Drury scored his first goal for the Avs on Friday since being traded from Carolina as part of a blockbuster three-team NHL deal.
Just 43 seconds later, Colorado broke through the neutral zone and Makar scored to double the lead.
But this is no longer a Rangers team that succumbed to the first sign of adversity. The fourth line of Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick and Matt Lempe had a lot to do with that, and this unit energized the team's response on Sunday.
Carrick buried his fifth of the season on a sweet backhand feed from Matt Lempe. It took less than a minute and a half for the Rangers to score another point, when Vincent Trocheck tapped a pass from Alexis Lafreniere into the net on a 2-on-1 rush.
However, the Avs capitalized on their first power play to take a 3-2 lead into the second period, when Makar scored his second goal of the game and 18th of the season.
