New York Rangers, A Season That Could Have Been
The Start of Something Special
October 7, 2015, the New York Rangers opened the new season in Chicago to take on the Blackhawks, the Stanley Cup Champions.
To everyone’s surprise, the Rangers ended the first period up 3-1, and would win the game by a final of 3-2. For the fans of the Rangers, the win was hope of things to come. It looked as if in the new season they could get over the struggle they faced in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Rangers would win their first three games, then lost the next three (3-2-1). Yet, fans were still positive of things to come. The Blue Shirts didn’t disappoint either.
The Streak
From October 25, 2015 to November 15, 2015, the Rangers were unbeatable. The 9-game winning streak was something fans were proud of because you thought they got over their scoring slumps from the past few years.
The End of the Streak
Then they met their old foe, their kryptonite, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Ben Bishop. Similar to the playoff series, the Rangers found themselves in a familiar spot, losing after the first period.
The team could tie the game in the third and even had a power play with under two minutes left in the game. Well, a pass bounced over the stick of Ryan McDonough and led to an odd man rush for the Lightning who would score and win the 2-1.
After the loss to the Lightning the Rangers followed it up with two very sloppy wins. One over the Florida Panthers and another over the Nashville Predators.
One and One
However, from December to the end of February it seemed as the New York Rangers were struggling to put wins together. As a matter of fact, the whole month of January was a broken record. The team would win a game, lose a game, win a game and lose a game.
Postseason Woes
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It seemed as if the New York Rangers back pedaled into the postseason and as soon as they met their round one opponents they thought everything would just pan out. The problem there, the ego of the team. They attempted to ride the backs of Henrik Lundqvist a little too long.
Ranger fans saw an image they never thought they would see, a defeated Henrik Lundqvist on the bench in the third period of Game Five while the team was hanging on by the skin on their teeth.
For Lundqvist, this postseason has to be his worst. The numbers don’t lie a save percentage of .867 and a goal against average of 4.39. Very uncharacteristic of the goaltender that the Rangers rely on.
Pittsburgh hasn’t been a friendly place for Lundqvist this season.
What started off promising with a 3-0 victory, turned horrible. A neck which injury that led to Hank flipping the net, to an eye injury in Game One. Nothing has been released yet, but is there a lingering injury we don’t know about?
The season started, and you thought the New York Rangers would ride off of Lundqvist’s play and unimaginable saves to make the push as the top team in the league.
Next: New York Rangers Need to Re-Tool and Rebuild
The Off-season
Now we look towards the future where change is necessary this off-season. There is a lot of youth up for new contracts these next two summers.
This year who do you let walk? Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller or Kevin Hayes? It’s a very hard decision we don’t have to make, however, we will be quick to point out the flaws in whoever they keep.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the same team we watched in 2014. However, the future is in the hands of Alain Vigneault and Jeff Gorton. We all hope they can make moves that will lead to positive things to come.