What Went Wrong: Tommy Had a Candle--What's YOUR Excuse?!

Boy, did you guys blow it!

Let's face facts, the New York Rangers had the easiest chance to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Their road to the Eastern Conference Final was easy, but could have been easier. They started 7-0 in this year's playoffs, similar to 1994 (we know what happened back then). Yet they lost Games Four and Five against the Carolina Hurricanes, and were actually on the verge of losing Game Six and causing "reverse sweep" talks to start. Thankfully, Chris Kreider decided to become superhuman in that third period.

They nearly blew it, but still, 8-2 is definitely not bad. The Rangers had the Florida Panthers right in their laps. Not a real team. They had the home ice. I said that the Rangers basically had a bye straight to the Stanley Cup Final. They had a golden ticket.

And they fucked it up.

Plain and simple, every Ranger not named Igor Shesterkin fell off the map. That's what went wrong. Everyone got lazy and expected Igor to clean up the mess, or as I call it, "Baltimore Ravens syndrome." Disappearing like that was a team effort, but there are a couple of guys who deserve to be on the receiving end of this burial.

$11.6 million/year is way too much money to go eight playoff games without scoring a goal, but that's what happened with Artemi Panarin. He did score the lone goal in Game Six, but that was his first goal since all the way back in Game Three vs the Hurricanes. Because those two were road games, that means that the last time Panarin found the net in front of Rangers faithful at MSG was Game One vs the Hurricanes--on Cinco de Mayo. Yikes. In all, Panarin finished with five goals total in this long run, and 15 points overall in 16 games. That's decent. The Rangers needed him to be better than decent. And he's getting two more paydays starting next season.

At least when Tommy Oliver lost his powers, it was caused by a magic candle. What's Mika Zibanejad's fucking excuse?! Top six player, always on the Rangers' top power play, yet had ONE POINT in the Eastern Conference Final. Racked up a bunch in the first two rounds, but when it came to the Final Four, he was a ghost. One assist in the whole series, and he committed a turnover that led to a delay of game penalty in OT of Game Four, which resulted in a quick PPG for Florida. Now, Zibanejad isn't making Panarin money, but he's still too high profile of a player to be doing fuck all when it counts.

Vincent Trocheck and the aforementioned Zibanejad were the only ones putting up a point per game, with Trocheck leading the way with 20 points (8 G/12 A), while Zibanejad had 16 (3 G/13 A) in 16. Trocheck, Kreider, and Alexis Lafreniere were all tied with eight goals, and speaking eight, that's how many points Adam Fox had (all assists). So Fox was another one who was underperforming in the playoffs. As for the top overperformer, it was Barclay Goodrow. He only had eight points, but six of them were goals!

So the Presidents' Trophy drought continues; no Cups or Cup Final appearances for Presidents' Trophy winners since 2013. Again, this was the Rangers' best chance to at least make it to the Final (if not win it), and they blew it. What's next? The window should still be open, but can they really prove that they are the heavyweight contender that they definitely portray themselves to be? Remember: these two Final Four appearances sandwich a shocking first round exit. That definitely doesn't help. Also, will the overdependence on Igor lead to the Vezina winner and one-time Hart candidate start to run out of gas? For the Rangers' sake, that better not happen.

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