The New York Rangers completed their season on Thursday night with a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the emotions of the game spoke louder than the score or win.
It’s been a season from the start that has been riddled with drama, tension, and underwhelming play. It feels that the energy around the Rangers has only gotten worse as time has gone on.
The mood best to describe this night was sadness. Walking into the legendary Madison Square Garden for the last time this season, there was a sense of gloom.
It was business as usual, yet there was a strange feeling of emptiness like the Rangers were just playing this game for nothing, which was exactly the case.
To close out the season, the Rangers actually played really well. The win didn’t matter though, the only thing this victory did was reignite the question: What could have been and where has this team been all season?
All season long the Rangers showed no sense of heart, no sense of urgency, and no sense of purpose.
There were fans and surprisingly a lot of them in attendance cheering on the Blueshirts, but it feels like everyone gave up on the Rangers a while ago.
Throughout the contest, the sadness continued to pour on. The sadness for Sam Rosen who was calling his final game as the Rangers play-by-play announcer, the sadness of a team’s utter collapse from the top of the league to the pits of despair, and the sadness of another season ending with nothing to show for it.
There was also a feeling of uncertainty. The Rangers have had the same nucleus of players for many years and that might be changing after what can only be described as a dreadful season.
Throughout the year, the wheels were falling off this team’s core. They were barely holding it together as they continued to lose piece by piece from Jacob Trouba, to Kaapo Kakko, to Ryan Lindgren, to Jimmy Vesey.
Thursday night felt like this core’s last dance. Sure, there will be quite a few players who return to New York next season. However, major roster turnover and a drastic culture shift are inevitable.
After the game, Peter Laviolette and a few players rattled on the same old cliches, something that you knew they weren’t actually thinking deep down.
In a night full of emotions and uncertainty, one thing remained crystal clear: The fans and people of New York deserve better.
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