After weeks of stringing along their fans and giving them false hope, the New York Rangers have officially been eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention thanks to a 7-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon, April 13.
For the second time in their history, the Rangers have missed the postseason after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best team in the regular season. This happened both in the 1992-93 season and now this year.
The truth is, this has been a long time coming for this year’s version of the Blueshirts. The team was an absolute mess in just about every area of the game and was never consistent enough to find a way to compete for the Cup in the spring.
For starters, the Rangers struggled on the defensive side of the puck this season. The team’s play in their four games this week is a good example.
The team allowed a combined 22 goals in games against the Tampa Bay Lightning (five goals against), the Philadelphia Flyers (eight goals against), the New York Islanders (two goals against), and the Carolina Hurricanes (seven goals against). Yes, the Rangers scored 18 goals themselves, but because of their lousy play without the puck, they lost three of the four games they played.
As such, it should not come as a surprise that the Rangers are currently (As of Saturday night, April 12) 19th in the league in goals allowed. The team has given up 245 goals in 79 games (3.10 goals against per game).
It should also not be a surprise that the Blueshirts allowed their opponents to fire lots of pucks on their net this season. As of this writing (Saturday night, April 12), the Rangers are 28th in the league in shots allowed per game as they give up close to an average of 30 shots (29.9) per game.
The Blueshirts were terrible in their end this season. They constantly coughed up the puck, did not do a good enough job of closing gaps, and generally looked confused in their own zone.
Because the Rangers were so horrible in front of their goaltenders, both Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick struggled statistically this season. As of this writing (Saturday night, April 12), Shesterkin is 26-29-0-5 with a 2.91 goals-against average, a .901 save percentage, and five shutouts while Quick is 10-7-0-2 with a 3.18 goals-against average, a .893 save percentage, and three shutouts.
Speaking of Shesterkin, he never seemed to find a groove this season. There were times when he looked like the all-world goaltender he is capable of being, and there were other times when he got lit up.
Another area the Rangers struggled with this season is leadership. Simply put, there did not appear to be any this season.
After trading their captain, Jacob Trouba, to the Anaheim Ducks in December, no one seemed to step up and keep the team focused on winning games. This does not make any sense, as this team has a lot of veterans.
With the voices of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, and even J.T. Miller all out on the ice and in the locker room, one would think that one of them would be able to get the message across to the team and find a way to battle hard to get into the postseason. Unfortunately for the Rangers, that never ended up materializing as the voices were quiet and the play was inconsistent.
Another problem with this year’s Rangers hockey club was the coaching of Peter Laviolette. Not only did his message (s) to the team appear to stop getting through, but he never knew how to make the proper in-game adjustments.
Because Laviolette’s messaging was ignored by the players, the team kept making the same mistakes night in and night out. Missed coverages, careless plays with the puck, a lot of too many men on the ice penalties, and not enough effort plagued the Rangers this season.
Lastly, Rangers general manager Chris Drury deserves some of the blame for what happened to his team this year. Trying to trade Trouba through the media last off-season was not a good look and the way he went behind Barclay Goodrow’s back and got rid of him (San Jose Sharks) was also not the greatest way to do business.
Trouba and Goodrow are two highly-respected veterans that were more than well liked in the locker room and were guys who the team looked for leadership when things got tough. Drury got rid of those two voices and both the locker room and the team’s play on the ice changed in the wrong direction this season.
When you add all of these things up, it is easy to see why the Rangers will not be playing for hockey’s Holy Grail this spring. Instead, like they have been since 1995, they will be watching another team lift the Cup and take their place on hockey’s mountaintop.
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