New York Rangers

A first-round exit was certainly not in the range of acceptable outcomes for the New York Rangers in 2023. Not after an Eastern Conference Final appearance a year ago and the loudest trade deadline since 2014.

Yet while the Rangers' defeat to their rivals across the Holland Tunnel might be poignant, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising. Yes, the team accumulated 107 points during the regular season and were certainly perceived as at least something of a contender.

But this was not a particularly encouraging regular season for the Rangers, whose early-season losing led to ESPN's Emily Kaplan reporting that team ownership was "paying close attention" to head coach Gerard Gallant. Following the trade deadline, the team struggled to cohere, dropping winnable games that could have earned them home-ice advantage in Round 1.

It's not too dissimilar from the previous season in which a team constantly hemmed in its own end got bailed out by superstars, an elite power play and one of the best single-season goaltending performances in league history.

This time, a number of star players did not turn hero, and the power play failed to capitalize in Games 3 to 7. Igor Shesterkin did his best to drag the team into the second round, but it was not enough.

A second straight series in which the Rangers fell apart after winning the opening two games illuminates the shortcomings of Gallant. After the Devils opened the series with humiliating losses, the team, led by Lindy Ruff, adjusted, forechecked more aggressively and constricted space in the neutral zone. Once it was clear the Devils had tilted the ice back in their favor, Gallant had no counterpunch except to once again reach for a jumbling of line combinations.

Certainly, the Rangers' roster was not perfect. But general manager Chris Drury kept much of the team intact from last season. He reunited Gallant with center Vincent Trocheck. The team swung big at the deadline. Twice. The defense was built with big, physical players ostensibly primed for playoff-style hockey. There are other playoff teams who have done more with less.

Gallant may be right that talented players can only go so far, and how well they connect is more important. Yet that observation is a self-indictment.

Commandeering a group of talented players to buy into a coherent plan that maximizes their output through cohesion isn't just in the job description. It is the job description.

Not often this season did the Rangers appear to have an identity.

Drury may dismiss Gallant by the end of the week. Perhaps he should. But while that may address a short-term problem, it will leave the Rangers' GM to come to terms with a series of bold moves on his part that did not manifest success.

How did Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane play for the Rangers? There was some good, some bad and some ugly.

More pertinent is how the Rangers ended up in a position in which management felt those moves were necessary. The trading of Pavel Buchnevich to St. Louis is among the worst deals in franchise history. Former top prospect Vitali Kravtsov became a bust. Barclay Goodrow ended up on the fourth line for a reason. Sammy Blais went back to St. Louis having not scored as a Ranger.

Last season, Drury successfully rescued the team with rentals of Andrew Copp and Frank Vatrano. It worked then. It didn't work this season. Now entering the offseason, the organization is exactly where it started. Kaapo Kakko, Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey top the depth chart on right wing.

No solutions are coming internally; top prospect Brennan Othmann is not NHL-ready, with one NHL scout calling his timeline to the NHL "elongated" following a lukewarm junior season. Will Cuylle, if he's ready and able, projects as a depth player.

The Rangers had arguably the biggest, most physical defense in the league, but that came at the cost of moving the puck. Save for Adam Fox, no Rangers blueliner was capable of collecting pucks in the defensive zone and moving them forward with possession. The Devils' speed kept the Rangers in their own end and unable to break out and forecheck, while the team's inability to stretch the ice from the back suffocated hopes of rush offense. As poorly as many of the Rangers' forwards played, they weren't granted with many opportunities at even strength to enter the offensive zone with possession.

It's difficult to see how this gets better. Based on Evolving Hockey's projected costs of two-year deals for RFAs K'Andre Miller ($4.039M) and Alexis Lafreniére ($2.94M), the Rangers would have around $5.64M in cap space to then fill out six roster spots; or roughly $940K per opening.

Drury will have to promote minor leaguers or sign from the bargain bin to fill out the roster unless he can make cap space elsewhere.

How he'd do so is unclear. Jacob Trouba is a third-pairing defenseman with an $8M cap hit that implies Norris-trophy expectations. He'd be unmovable even if he didn't have a no-movement clause. Trocheck, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are also signed long-term and can veto any trade.

Goodrow has a 15-team no-trade clause and is signed to an unpalatable $3.641M cap hit through 2027. He is movable, though the Rangers may have to pay heavily from a quickly diminishing prospect and draft pick cupboard to make that happen.

The organization wanted to expedite the rebuild after the 2020-21 season. It signed multiple older players to long-term contracts and moved draft picks for rentals. The head coach said his job was not to develop the young players.

Now the bill has come due.

Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider and Trocheck will all be over 30 years old by the end of next season. The prospect pool is well below average, and the Rangers will be short on draft picks again this summer. With little cap space with which to drastically improve the team during the offseason, what you see is what you'll probably continue to get. The Rangers finished fourth and fifth in the East the previous two seasons and entered the playoffs with dark-horse playoff hopes reinforced by expensive trade deadline mercenaries.

Barring some surprises or very clever cap management, the Rangers are built to be no more than that for the near future.

Let's get one thing out of the way: The Rangers shouldn't necessarily regret their 2022-23 trade deadline, which was the biggest splash of any NHL team in recent memory. But it didn't get the job done.

New York went in big and acquired star veterans Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. They added solid depth in Tyler Motte and Niko Mikkola. The moves were prudent, and the Rangers didn't give really give up that much.

GM Chris Drury got a (once) generational player with ample postseason experience in Kane without giving up a first-rounder or a top prospect. He got perennial sniper and Cup champion Tarasenko, and Mikkola, for only one of the Rangers' two first-round picks at the time, a 2024 third-rounder, Sammy Blais and Hunter Skinner. The prices were too good to pass up.

But as the clock ran out on a lifeless Rangers team Monday and the Devils took Game 7 4-0, your mind immediately went to the lack of elite, playoff-level elevation from the trade-deadline acquisitions and other star players. This is a team that had much bigger aspirations than just making the playoffs. For the season to end with a series loss to a younger, faster and hungrier rival team like the Devils, it had to sting badly.

Kane was extremely disappointing in particular when the Rangers needed him most, scoring zero goals, zero points and posting a minus-one in Game 7, and only scoring one goal in the seven-game series. Whether it was the reported hip injury that limited him throughout the season or the lack of chemistry the 34-year-old had with his linemates, the soon-to-be free agent fell far short of the "Showtime" moniker he earned winning three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks.

Like the rest of the Rangers, Tarasenko started off great as the team took a 2-0 series lead and it felt like the young Devils were already toast. He scored the first goal of the series quickly in Game 1, but he'd only end up with four points (three goals and an assist) in seven games. He was virtually invisible at best during the Rangers' losses, and his worst game was the most important one of all—he posted a minus-three in Game 7.

And don't get us started on the power play. After Chris Kreider feasted in front of the net in the first two games of the series, the goals with the man advantage dried up with the Devils making adjustments. Mind you, this is a team that boasts Adam Fox, one of the league's best power-play quarterbacks; Artemi Panarin, a premier playmaker; and Mika Zibanejad, armed with a lethal one-timer. When you add elite talent like Tarasenko and Kane, you'd expect them to do well. It's mind-blowing that they couldn't get it together.

To be fair, it wasn't all on New York's trade-deadline acquisitions. You almost forgot Panarin was even on the team during the series, ending with two assists and a minus-two rating through seven games. Budding star defenseman K'Andre Miller didn't look like the confident player he's grown into, with especially brutal giveaways in Game 7. Even Fox wasn't immune, making a critical error that led to the opening goal on Monday night.

But hey, it's not like the major trade-deadline acquisitions on either side shifted the balance of the series. New Jersey's big deadline acquisition, Timo Meier was held scoreless throughout the series and was then forced to leave the game after a trademark crunching hit from Rangers captain Jacob Trouba.

The difference? The Devils' young core, already the fastest team in the playoffs, grew confident and became stronger throughout the series. Jack Hughes is emerging as the next American hockey star, with consequential plays and goals in almost every game this series. Meanwhile, the veterans on the Rangers just didn't have the legs to keep up in the footrace. This isn't your mother or father's NHL anymore, and you need young legs to keep up with the grind that is a seven-game series.

It's like the Rangers stocked up at the deadline to prepare for tough, heavy hockey that never really happened. And when the power play that had been clicking in the first two games went silent, the Devils' consistent five-on-five play took over.

You also need to hand it to Devils rookie goaltender Akira Schmid. He won four out of the five games he started in since debuting in Game 3, posting two shutouts and a .951 save percentage.

What did we learn here, folks? You don't need to regret going all-in at the trade deadline—especially when the price is right. But superstars aren't everything. In fact, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant lamented the fact that he couldn't get his team to forecheck the way the Devils were able to throughout the series.

His counterpart, Lindy Ruff, agreed.

Would any team love to have Tarasenko and Kane as part of their top six forwards? Sure. Is playoff experience important? Yes. But the Devils-Rangers series might have shown us that the experience and veteran star power come playoff time might be overblown. The game is trending in a younger, faster direction, and the Rangers are left holding the L, wondering what happens next in an uncertain offseason.

When the New York Rangers jumped to a 2-0 series lead, it looked like yet another upset was brewing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Fast forward five games, and the Rangers' season has crumbled to an end after losing 4-0 in Game 7 to the New Jersey Devils.

The Devils completed the incredible series comeback with a gritty performance on their home ice at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Goals from Michael McLeod, Tomas Tatar, Erik Haula and Jesper Bratt were enough to get the home team over the line and into the second round of the postseason.

But the true story of the game was New York's offense—or lack thereof.

After scoring a combined 15 goals in their three wins in the series, the Rangers were completely shut out, failing to take advantage of their four power-play opportunities.

Also key was the incredible performance by goalie Akira Schmid, who came up huge in big-time moments with 31 saves.

New York goalie Igor Shesterkin had an impressive performance of his own with 20 saves, but he wasn't given enough goal support.

Rangers fans and hockey Twitter were going off about New York's lack of offense in the biggest game of their season.

After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last year, the Rangers will have plenty of questions to think about this offseason, as they didn't come near the same point in 2023.

And that's despite making win-now moves like trading for stars Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko.

Meanwhile, the Devils advanced out of the first round for the first time since 2012 when they lost in the Stanley Cup Final. They'll play the top-seed remaining in the Eastern Conference in the Carolina Hurricanes.

We have ourselves a Game 7.

The New York Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 5-2 on Saturday night in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoffs matchup to force a Game 7 at the Prudential Center on Monday.

After allowing Devils forward Curtis Lazar to open the scoring at the 11:49 mark of the first period, the Blueshirts dominated the rest of Game 6.

Rangers forward Chris Kreider opened the floodgates when he scored his sixth goal of the postseason at the 19:35 mark of the first period to tie the game 1-1.

Mika Zibanejad, Vladimir Tarasenko, Barclay Goodrow and Braden Schneider also scored goals for the Rangers in their big win.

After the game, Rangers fans hailed Kreider and the offense for a dominant outing to force Game 7:

If Kreider, Zibanejad and the forwards continue to play like they did in Game 6, the Rangers will have a good chance of winning this series on the road in Game 7 and clinching a berth in the next round.

The start time for Monday's Game 7 has yet to be determined.

The New York Rangers are one game away from elimination—or one game away from tying the first-round series, depending on your level of optimism.

After the New Jersey Devils shut out the Rangers 4-0 on April 27 in a crushing Game 5, that optimism seemed to be at a season-long low in New York. The Devils lead the series, 3-2.

The Rangers have now been held to two goals in their last three games.

New Jersey's Ondrej Palat opened scoring in the first 39 seconds after the Rangers' structure crumbled around a defensive-zone faceoff.

The Devils goals kept coming. Erik Haula converted on a power play. Dawson Mercer tallied on a shorthanded odd-man rush. Haula scored again, seconds after the Rangers pulled their goaltender in a desperate bid with five minutes left.

In the end, New Jersey nearly doubled New York's shot total, 43 to 23.

The Rangers appeared to get increasingly frustrated throughout the third period, but despite several scraps, New York struggled to get out of its own zone as the minutes ticked down in the final frame.

As the Prudential Center shook with mocking "Igor" chants from Devils fans, Rangers fans defended their goaltender. Igor Shesterkin has made 85 saves on 96 shots for a .924 save percentage throughout the Rangers' last three losses.

The Rangers face the Devils again for Game 6 at Madison Garden on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. New York's historically dangerous scorers like Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane will look to get the Rangers' offense back on track as they fight to regain the dominance Rangers fans saw in Games 1 and 2.

That will not be easy against the Devils, who looked every inch the faster and younger team during Thursday night's shutout loss.

After the New York Rangers opened their first-round series against the New Jersey Devils with back-to-back 5-1 wins, it looked like the team was peaking at the perfect time to make another deep postseason run.

Unfortunately, the Rangers offense went cold for the second straight game as they lost to the Devils 3-1 in Game 4 on Monday. It was the second straight game that New York has mustered just one goal, both anemic performances coming on their home ice at Madison Square Garden.

Vincent Trocheck scored the Rangers' lone goal on Monday night, finding the net early in the third period to tie the game. However, the Devils took the lead once again later in the frame and never looked back.

The Rangers failed to take advantage of their best scoring chances, as they went 0-of-3 on their power play opportunities. They are now 0-of-8 on the power play in their last two outings.

New York's continued offensive struggles were called out by fans on Twitter:

The Rangers will have to regroup quickly if they hope to take back the momentum in this series. The Devils appear to have found a successful formula, so New York could look to make some adjustments to get its offense back on track.

The two teams will look to break a 2-2 series tie when they return to the ice for Game 5 on Thursday.

There's something to be said about what playoff experience means come playoff time.

You want players who have been through the attrition that is Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was that specific thing that drove the New York Rangers' aim at the trade deadline, and it's one of the main reasons why they have a 2-0 series over the rival New Jersey Devils.

It wasn't something New York necessarily lacked. After all, the Rangers made the Eastern Conference Final last season and brought back the bulk of its core. But if you add more playoff experience and high-end skill to a team with Stanley Cup expectations, there's a good chance you'll have a recipe for success.

New York's two major trade-deadline acquisitions this season were Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. When the Rangers brought them on board, though, there was some thought that these were desperate moves to add big-name players for the bright lights of Broadway. No team in the NHL loves marquee names quite like New York does, and those two players were the biggest names out there.

Those arguments had some merit, too. The Rangers weren't lacking for offense, and both Tarasenko and Kane were in the middle of the least productive seasons of their careers. Kane was struggling through a reported hip injury, while Tarasenko had already asked out of St. Louis previously and already had one eye on the exit door in a contract year.

Each has their particular set of skills—Tarasenko has the incredible shot and Kane can create plays out of nothing—but those skills weren't quite as sharp this season.

You wouldn't know it based on how they performed in Game 2. In fact, both have caught fire since the start of the postseason.

Tarasenko's second-period goal got the Rangers on the board and tied the game. It was a classic, wired wrist shot out of the blue through traffic that eluded Vitek Vanecek. It's the sort of shot we saw from Tarasenko throughout his career in St. Louis, and now he's doing it for the Blueshirts instead of the Blues.

It's why the Rangers were happy to spend a 2023 first- and fourth-round pick and gave up two players to get him. Players with elite skill, even those who might not be as good as they used to be, can still bring it.

Kane was the more controversial addition for the Rangers, but he made GM Chris Drury look like a genius in Game 2. The 34-year-old, three-time Stanley Cup champion piled up three points in the Rangers' 5-1 win. He set up both of Chris Kreider's second-period goals and scored on an incredible individual effort early in the third period in which he picked Jesper Bratt's pocket twice and slow-played a backhand past Vanecek.

Kane was only ever going to leave Chicago to play for the Rangers, but for the longest time, it didn't seem like it was going to happen. While waiting on Kane, the Rangers pivoted and landed Tarasenko. That Kane ultimately landed in Manhattan anyway was a supreme bonus.

What's more, bringing Kane and Tarasenko in has helped give their other star players a lift.

Opposing teams have to be aware of Kane and Tarasenko on the ice, which means players like Chris Kreider get some extra breathing room to exploit opposing defenses, especially on the power play. Kreider has four goals in the first two games of the playoffs, scoring twice in each of the 5-1 wins in Newark. Kreider's power-forward play is specially made to excel in the playoffs, and he's thriving around the Devils' net.

Adam Fox is one of the NHL's best defensemen, and he's exceeded even his own lofty standards over the first two games against New Jersey. Fox had four assists in Game 1 and two more in Game 2, including both of Tarasenko's goals in the series.

The Devils have been wound tighter than a drum in this series, and now that it's headed across the river to Madison Square Garden for Games 3 and 4, the nerves they showed at home aren't likely to improve. It's this kind of scenario that made the Rangers eager to add veterans like Tarasenko and Kane. Their presence on the roster should serve to reduce the stress on the Rangers' young players like Kaapo Kakko, Alexis Lafreniére, and Filip Chytil. New York can go roll out four lines and have a scoring threat that most teams that can only dream of it.

Veterans who have won the Stanley Cup take all the heat because they've been there before. Their experience is invaluable in helping younger players learn and adapt to the rigors of the postseason.

It's only two games into the playoffs, but the Rangers have one of the NHL's best teams on the ropes, and much of the credit for that belongs to the superstars they acquired. There's still a long road ahead, but if Tarasenko and Kane can be counted for these kinds of performances throughout the playoffs, the rest of the Eastern Conference could be in big trouble.