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The New York Rangers Are the Ultimate Losers of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs

By Conor Power

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 27: William Carrier #28 of the Vegas Golden Knights wraps around the net as Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Rangers defends in the third period at Madison Square Garden on January 27, 2023 in New York City. The New York Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 27: William Carrier #28 of the Vegas Golden Knights wraps around the net as Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Rangers defends in the third period at Madison Square Garden on January 27, 2023 in New York City. The New York Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 27: William Carrier #28 of the Vegas Golden Knights wraps around the net as Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Rangers defends in the third period at Madison Square Garden on January 27, 2023, in New York City. The New York Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 27: William Carrier #28 of the Vegas Golden Knights wraps around the net as Jaroslav Halak #41 of the New York Rangers defends in the third period at Madison Square Garden on January 27, 2023, in New York City. The New York Rangers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

Congratulations to the Vegas Golden Knights on the first Stanley Cup championship in the history of their franchise. While they will be celebrating on the strip during the summer, the rest of the hockey world has some ground to make up to catch the Golden Knights. But there has not been enough salt in the wound for the New York Rangers, so here we go to hurt those wounds even more.

Your New York Rangers are the ultimate losers of the 2022-23 Stanley Cup Playoffs! If you aren’t sure what this means, I will explain but for now, just know that it isn’t good. If the Rangers have aspirations to win the cup, they cannot be in a position like this again. It’s never a good sign to be the ultimate loser when 15 of the 16 teams that make the playoffs will lose out. It does mean that it was a difficult path, but even so, it’s not good.

To explain, the New York Rangers lost in 7 to the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey lost in 5 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina lost in 4 to the Florida Panthers. Florida lost in 5 to Vegas. To cut all the extra out, the Rangers lost to the Devils who lost to the Hurricanes who lost to the Panthers who lost to the Golden Knights. For a team that came into the season with cup ambitions to be the ultimate loser is not a good sign.

As for what needs to change to avoid this next season, the safest way is to just win a round. Hopefully, Peter Laviolette and his coaching staff can help the Rangers go on a deep run next season to try and capture the Stanley Cup as opposed to being thrown out in the first round like they were this year. There’s an argument that if the Rangers were able to get out of the first round, they’d probably have gone deep this year.

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