47-22-13

This was not how I wanted the season to end. A SO loss to Buffalo after they came from behind to force OT. Then the Rangers blew another leading game to a regulation loss against Toronto.

Buffalo was fighting tooth and nail to try to scrape their way into playoffs and while they didn’t end up making it, the effort was there. For too much of the game, the Rangers’ effort didn’t seem like it was there. Oh, we have the lead, we can take it from here easily. No. And that happened a lot this season.

For Toronto, both teams were locked into their playoff positions (Tampa vs Toronto) so the game didn’t matter. It started that way too as it looked like a pre-season game. Pretty slow, low impact. That was the whole 1st period. Then the Rangers scored in the second (fantastic shot from Kakko) and Toronto was like…Ya know, maybe we don’t want to lose the last game of the season, and they started playing harder. They scored, Schneider made an incredible goal to take the lead again and it was called offside and taken away. That annoyed the Rangers who went on a rampage when they went on the power play shortly after. Toronto scored shortly after that, which also happened a lot this season. Then with about 7 minutes left in the game, Toronto took the lead after cleaning up a rebound. The Rangers fought like hell to the end and had another goal get taken away, this time for Chytil kicking it in. Not the kind of momentum you want to go into the Playoffs.

The Rangers really should have taken second in the division instead of third. First really was in reach too. Those games that got away from them added up to the Devils’ finishing 5 points ahead. It is what it is, I guess. Maybe they were more concerned with being rested and healthy for the playoffs. Which they are. So that means no excuses for not hitting the ice at full power for game 1. It’s going to be an absolute war against the Devils and they can’t be sloppy against them. They know what that team is capable of after 4 games in the season where they were all very close games where mistakes left the door open for the Devils to come back and win. The coaching staff has some serious work to do to make a winning strategy. The most important games start Tuesday, the 18th.

As a bonus, the Capitals and Penguins failed to make the playoffs. That ends an 8-year and 16 (!) year streak! Both teams will likely have very different rosters come October as they have too many glaring flaws that can’t be patched over anymore.