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What went wrong with the New York Rangers: Window closing

By John Williams |
OTTAWA, ON - FEBRUARY 17: New York Rangers Left Wing Rick Nash (61) after a whistle during second period National Hockey League action between the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators on February 17, 2018, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada. (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
OTTAWA, ON - FEBRUARY 17: New York Rangers Left Wing Rick Nash (61) after a whistle during second period National Hockey League action between the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators on February 17, 2018, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada. (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The New York Rangers have had a lot go wrong for them this season. All of the difficulties they faced led to blowing up their roster and starting a rebuild.

After losing to the Ottawa Senators in six games in the Eastern Conference Semi Final last season, their was hope for another playoff run on Broadway coming into the season.

With the additions of Kevin Shattenkirk and prospect Lias Andersson, who many thought had the inside track to make the team out of camp, their was an excitement about the team. Brendan Smith was back on a new deal. Mika Zibanejad was gonna get a crack at the number one center job. There was hope.

After starting 3-7-2 and seeing a lot of the problems fans had worried about over the last few years come to light, hope was gone.

Then Henrik Lundqvist got back to his all-world self, and the Rangers somehow got back in the playoff race, even reaching second place in the Metropolitan Division at one point.

Then Chris Kreider went down with blood clots in his right arm. That was followed by Kevin Shattenkirk announcing that he played since October with a torn meniscus and then sitting the rest of the season. The Rangers, who were winning games solely because of Lundqvist, stopped winning.

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More injuries continued to pile up. The Rangers went through a stretch missing six regulars from their lineup including captain Ryan McDonagh.

On February 8, president Glen Sather and general manager Jeff Gorton came to a decision that the Rangers, who had made playoffs for 11 of the past 12 years, weren’t going in a positive direction.

It was time to rebuild.

The letter was written, some key players in the franchise’s three Conference Final runs in the past eight years and singular Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2013-2014 where shipped all over the east coast and the team was left with very little talent.

The season dragged on and on and the team looked worse and worse. Henrik Lundqvist, who had been routinely left out to dry over the last season and a half, was being shelled.

Of course their were some promising moments including the chemistry developed by Zibanejad and Kreider, the growth of defensemen Neal Pionk and John Gilmour and the dominating March streak by Ryan Spooner.

But the window closed.

Sure it could–and will–be a good thing in the long run for the franchise. But it feels different and strange. An era full of winning and success and epic playoff runs is over and we don’t know how long it will take for this next era of New York Rangers hockey to bear the fruits of it’s labor.

Maybe if a coaching change happened in the previous offseason, this all could have been avoided. Maybe if they didn’t trade Derek Stepan for two large question marks it could have been avoided.

Next: Pionk deserves a roster spot next season

Truth is, we’ll never know.

But here we are, with six months to go until we see the Rangers play another game.

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