Rangers lost season full of controversies is finally over

Join Post Sports+ for exciting member-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.Right through the final day of the Rangers’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season, the off-ice issues were a constant.The Athletic reported Thursday morning that Artemi Panarin and Madison Square Garden reached settlements with a former Rangers employee after she accused the star Blueshirts player of sexual assault in December 2023.There is no record of the woman reporting the alleged incident to law enforcement, according to the report.

She also reported it to the team three months later, when she was under investigation for a separate incident that concerned her sharing unauthorized anti-anxiety medication with a player.The agreements reportedly include a nondisclosure agreement and no admission of wrongdoing clauses.It’s just the latest negative headline to hover over the Blueshirts in a season that has been chock full of them.Asked what it’s been like to navigate this campaign amid all of it, head coach Peter Laviolette deferred to another time.“Those are probably questions for another day.It’s still game day,” Laviolette said Thursday morning before the Rangers beat the Lightning, 4-0, at Madison Square Garden.

“We got one game left here.We got to focus on that.

That’s not going to change our place in life, the game tonight.But you’re going to leave the rink here feeling like you worked hard, like you competed and you did the right things, and you end on a win in front of our fans in our building.

Or, you don’t check those boxes.Right now, we’re just focused on that.”And so the everlasting memory of the 2024-25 campaign will be the handful of fans at the Garden on Thursday night wearing bags over their heads.The season seemed doomed since last summer, when the Rangers circumvented Barclay Goodrow’s no-trade list and waived him in a prearranged deal with the Sharks.

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