Postgame Takeaways: The 2024-25 NY Rangers Are Officially Toast

NEW YORK – Let's simply state what most of us have been contemplating for the past four months.

The Rangers are toast.

Mathematically speaking, there’s still hope. On Monday, they suffered a 5-1 defeat. Tampa Bay Lightning At Madison Square Garden, the Rangers weren't knocked out of playoff contention. However, over the past two and a half days, their chances have drastically diminished as almost every outcome has gone against them.

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“It’s awful,” stated forward Artemi Panarin straightforwardly. “If we continue playing this way, we’ll miss the playoffs.”

The Rangers (36-34-7), not only have they suffered consecutive defeats which has further diminished their chances, but also seem to be lacking resilience given the critical nature of the situation. Meanwhile, the team they're trying to catch, the surging Red Hot, continues to perform impressively. Montreal Canadiens They have secured five consecutive victories, including wins on both Saturday and Sunday. This has put New York six points behind the Eastern Conference's last wildcard spot with just five matches remaining.

The situation isn’t just about enduring anymore; we can’t afford to simply secure a victory and then await their next move," forward Jonny Brodzinski stated. "Now, we must keep winning games and also require some assistance. Being in this spot really stinks.

The Rangers cannot end up with more than 89 total points, a mark that Montreal could reach with just two additional victories. Furthermore, should the Habs secure five or more from their last 10 possible points, it wouldn’t make a difference whether the Blueshirts win all their games left.

That's essentially what they must accomplish to stand a chance, yet they've been unable to secure three successive victories since late November. Is there anybody with sound judgment who thinks the Rangers could pull off five wins in a row at this point?

It's not going to be these guys. Not in this season.

The objective was to secure a victory tonight," stated head coach Peter Laviolette. "Unfortunately, we fell short. This has unfortunately become quite common throughout this season.

A damning 1:45

If I told you the Rangers outplayed them in the opening 12 minutes of Monday’s game, would you find that credible?

They started with great energy, managing to land 12 of the game’s initial 13 shots on target.

The newly assembled lineup featuring Brodzinski, Brennan Othmann, and Matt Rempe was generating excitement during their initial shifts as Rempe returned following a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury. Additionally, the power play seemed revitalized after struggling for several weeks; this resurgence included a potential scoring opportunity for Vincent Trocheck that prompted a frantic glove save from Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy at the 11:10 minute mark.

But a hooking penalty on Chris Kreider crashed any early momentum for New York and swung it dramatically in Tampa’s favor.

The Lightning's second, third, and sixth shots of the game turned into goals, essentially putting the Rangers away during an intense stretch of only 1 minute and 45 seconds.

"Everything seems more challenging for us this year," Panarin stated.

The sequence began when the Blueshirts' penalty kill faltered, leading to a smooth breakaway opportunity for Tampa Bay. During an ill-fated spinning pass aimed at maintaining possession within their attacking end, Adam Fox inadvertently ceded control of the puck. This mistake allowed Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point to swiftly move up ice. After receiving from Kucherov, Point sped towards the opposing net before returning the puck back out front where he capitalized easily with a tap-in score.

The Lightning lead would double on the very next shift, when Yanni Gourde outworked newest Rangers defenseman Carson Soucy − who has done little to inspire confidence he should move forward on a top pairing with Fox − to a juicy rebound in front of the net and backhanded it in.

Tampa sealed the damaging run with their second power-play goal out of three, which came from Point’s 40th score of the season, making it 3-0 at 14:54. (He later added his 41st goal towards the end of the third period.)

Brodzinski stated that it wasn’t about restraining players at the forefront or dealing with minor issues near our goal that led to our defeat.

This epitomized the utterly disheartening season for the Rangers. They crumble at the first sign of challenge, with one poor performance often triggering several more disastrous plays, too many to keep track of. This has resulted in particularlylopsided defeats, including Monday’s game which marked their 11th loss by a margin of four goals or greater.

The players have not been able to provide much of an explanation for this issue, and neither has Laviolette.

The coach who made a remarkably positive and stabilizing influence during his first season, leading the Blueshirts to their fourth Presidents' Trophy in team history, seems to have apparently lost his vocal authority this year.

“I currently don’t have a message,” he stated. “I usually avoid the locker room following the game.”

Power play shows up too late

The Rangers managed to rally sufficiently to dominate most of the second period, amassing 18 shots on goal and conceding just five.

They capitalized on an opportunity when Mika Zibanejad deflected a pass from Panarin, scoring New York’s second power-play goal in their last 12 games and the third within 47 tries.

The power play unit had multiple opportunities towards the end of the period, yet they failed to convert and narrow the gap to just one goal before stepping into the final frame.

I figured we needed another goal in the second period to bring it to 3-2 and build momentum heading into the third period," Laviolette stated. "However, that situation remained unchanged.

It was the most effective performance of the power play in recent times, characterized by sharp passing and increased activity around dangerous zones. Sadly, this level of execution should have come into play earlier than April 7th.

Panarin stated, “It appeared more assured, I would say. We created some solid opportunities. For now, at least, we have an image, though it won’t be useful for tonight’s game.”

Absence of trust in the children

Soon enough, Laviolette stopped offering young players the chances they deserved and instead began relying once again on underachieving veteran athletes.

Novice wingers Othmann and Gabe Perreault played in the top six for two full matches before getting moved further down in the roster to start Monday’s game.

"The coach mentioned that part of it was due to the opposing team's top line tonight, ensuring they put players on the ice who they believed could manage that particular line," he explained.

Jake Guentzel, Point, and Kucherov from Tampa dominated the power play, causing significant issues for their opponents. However, they struggled during even strength play where Will Cuylle, J.T. Miller, and Zibanejad took charge. According to Natural Stat Trick, this group produced a 9-1 edge in scoring opportunities and led in shot attempts 17-3 against the Lightning.

Laviolette’s strategy paid off in that sense, yet it fell short of altering the outcome. Additionally, this highlighted his hesitance to place faith in the young players crucial for the Rangers' upcoming years.

The Othmann-Brodzinski-Rempe line was New York’s top choice for building ozone pressure, especially near the net, producing a 6-to-1 advantage in scoring opportunities. However, Perreault struggled when paired on a secondary line with Kreider and Sam Carrick, managing no shots despite 13 minutes and six seconds of playtime.

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers a beat reporter with the USA TODAY Network. You can read more of their work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano .

The article was initially published in Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame observations: It’s time to call it quits for the 2024-25 NY Rangers.