From one of the final four teams in the 2022 playoffs to getting bounced in the first round of the 2023 playoffs, the Rangers learned that there is hardly ever a straight line to success.
To get so close to the top of the mountain one year, only to barely start the climb the next, it was a shock to a Rangers team that expected so much more from itself all season long.
The Devils simply stunned the Blueshirts and left their cross-Hudson rivals to contemplate how it all happened.
The Rangers will have ample time to dwell on it in a longer-than-desired offseason.
This whole colossal letdown of a season, however, could just be another chapter of adversity in the Rangers’ fairytale story.
“It’s definitely going to be motivating taking this into the summer,” said defenseman K’Andre Miller, a restricted free agent.
That is all the Rangers can hope for at this point.
The weighing disappointment and seething frustration that was so clearly visible in the Rangers locker room after that Game 7 loss in Newark can serve as a motor for this team next season.
Understanding that unimpeachable team character can be borne from what they experienced this postseason will be crucial.
The path to the Stanley Cup will never be unobstructed, and this could have been just another bump in the road.
It is what the Rangers do with the pain of this first-round exit that will matter in the long run.
“It’s up to us to make it a positive turning point in the narrative,” Chris Kreider said. “I know it’s a ridiculous thing to say on the heels of a loss like that in the first round, but it’s up to us to take it and use it as fuel and to come back and be a lot better next year.”
There’s a short list of Rangers skaters who can be satisfied with their postseason performance.
Artemi Panarin was certainly not one of them, which the Russian wing made abundantly clear during his end-of-the-season interview with the media.
His playoff struggles don’t appear to be from a lack of effort, but more of a mental shackling that completely isolates him from his signature style of play.
The fear he gained from repeatedly coughing the puck up last year manifested in him not having the puck nearly enough this year.
“Honestly, last playoffs I turn over, like, every puck,” Panarin said. “This year I don’t do that, not that bad. … I don’t want to say excuses, like it’s mental and I feel terrible in playoffs. Every game I [came] in excited, I try again and again and again. And it not work, not work, not work. I don’t know.”
Every Ranger can take something away from how this season ended.
Thoughts of how this year’s team — with Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola not expected back — may be the best they’ll ever be on will be difficult to work through.
That’s not to say they won’t be better for it.
The Avalanche failed to surpass the second round three seasons in a row before winning the Stanley Cup last year.
The Lightning were embarrassed in a four-game sweep by the Blue Jackets before winning back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021.
The Blues didn’t even qualify for the playoffs the year before they won in 2019.
The Rangers should cling to other NHL team’s journeys as reassurance that this all can be part of a bigger picture.
“We won’t find out until that happens, right?” Mika Zibanejad said. “So, in terms of that, it’s what you do with it. We’re not going to find out if this might have been the best thing that happened to us or not until later on. That’s something that you want to have in the back of your mind, but at the same time, you don’t want to limit yourself to think about stuff that we can’t do anything about now. We can only control what we do from here.”
Adam Fox was named one of three finalists for the Norris Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL’s top defenseman.
The Jericho, N.Y. native won the award after his second NHL season in 2021.
With 12 goals and 60 assists in 82 games this season, Fox was the Rangers’ highest scoring defenseman, as well as the third-highest point producer.
The Sharks’ Erik Karlsson and the Avalanche’s Cale Makar are the other finalists.
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