Rangers disastrous season complete as playoff hopes dead with loss to Hurricanes

This was dragged out longer than it needed to be. The Rangers were finally eliminated Saturday evening after a 7-3 loss to the Hurricanes at Lenovo Center, but the team realistically lost their season in November and have been headed toward this colossal letdown for the entire 2024-25 campaign. Facing elimination for a second game in a row was one too many. The Blueshirts have looked like they’ve wanted to go home for weeks. And so this slow crawl over broken glass to the finish line came to an end.The last two games should be slightly less painful now that they won’t carry any meaning.

Though having to sit with the discomfort of how this tragic season unfolded will be an offseason sentence. As the second team in franchise history and fourth team in NHL history to go from Presidents’ Trophy winners one season to missing the playoffs the next, these Rangers will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Was it the mistreatment of Barclay Goodrow – circumventing his no-trade list and waiving him in a prearranged deal with the Sharks – that derailed the whole season from the start? Or the summer drama between president and general manager Chris Drury and ex-captain Jacob Trouba that impacted the locker room? Maybe Drury allowing Trouba to walk back in was the first mistake.Maybe there was more retooling that should’ve been done in the offseason. Perhaps Drury’s league-wide trade memo eliciting trade partners and asserting that Trouba and Chris Kreider were specifically available – which preceded a damning 4-13 stretch – was the start of their downfall. Several marquee players taking major steps back and failing to show up consistently is no doubt to blame, as is the dysfunction within the system that made a core that had been playing together for years look like strangers. There was a lack of investment from those who matter most, a perpetual state of underachieving from those who could make a difference. Leah Hextall reported on ESPN that...