Oh the crushing feeling of disappointment. Just a glaze of malaise that seeps into ever pore. A sweep in the first round. It doesn’t really get any worse than than that. I had a weird feeling this was going to happen in the week leading up to the tournament. The NY Rangers historically beat Carolina, the win/loss ratio is far in the Ranger’s favor. Lundqvist has an amazing record against them. In the regular season the Rangers swept Carolina 4-0. Goals against was something like 17-9. Here? 11-4 for Carolina.

The first period was great. The second period started with a blast, Chris Kreider scoring, putting the Rangers in the lead for the first time in the series. Then, nothing went the Rangers way.

I had no confidence that the Rangers were going to make it to the finals this year. Getting to the first round, absolutely. If the Rangers ran into the Flyers, there’s no way they would win. Clearly the better team won in this contest and whoever plays them next has a major challenge in front of them (Carolina went really far last season).

It is what it is. There are still 2 months of Stanley Cup playoffs to go. The 2020-2021 season could start in November. That’s not too far away for the Rangers to be back on the ice and there’s only going to be like 2 months of no hockey from the end off the playoffs to the start of the season (if all goes well).

There is a ton of action for the Rangers in the off season. How is the goalie situation going to play out? Shesterkin is without a doubt the future. Does Hank hang on to end his contract leaving Georgiev to be traded? Or will Hank move on? Cap space is a major concern. With losing so much revenue this season, no team is getting more money to work with. There are a few guys the Rangers probably won’t be able to afford to keep (DeAngelo, Strome). There are a few rookies that should be able to play…the players they don’t keep could be replaced with this new talent. Plus, with losing in this play-in round, the Rangers get put into an advantageous place in the draft.

There are a lot of ice shavings that are going to settle in the next few months.