Rangers Need Big Changes After Disastrous Season

Recently, the New York Rangers have adopted the rallying cry of "No Quit in New York" as they made two appearances Eastern Conference Final over the past three years.

This year, though, there was plenty of quit in New York.

The Rangers were officially eliminated from playoff contention with their 7-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, marking the first time they've missed the postseason. After winning the Presidents' Trophy last season, New York has completely cratered this season, and will finish with around 30 fewer points as a result.

The Blueshirts' struggles this season became very apparent in late November and continued into December. After a 12-4-1 start to the year, the Rangers lost 15 of 19 games from Nov. 21-Dec. 30, and all of those losses came in regulation.

During that time, trade rumors also began swirling around defenseman Jacob Trouba and forward Chris Kreider, the former being the captain and the latter being the longest-tenured player on the roster. They eventually did deal Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6, and it's fair to assume the whole saga didn't sit well in the locker room.

Another reason for the Rangers' collapse is their lack of resiliency. This year, they have just 16 comeback wins on the season, and until Monday's 5-3 win over the Florida Panthers, none of them were by multiple goals. Compare that to last season, when they had 28 comeback wins and five by multi-goal comebacks. Again, not living up to their "No Quit in New York" motto.

The Rangers still have a lot of talent on their roster, with Alexis Lafreniere, Mika Zibaneja and Adam Fox being among their top skaters. Artemi Panarin is also having another great season with 89 points (37 goals, 52 assists) in 78 games at the time of writing.

Igor Shesterkin had a relatively poor season by his standards with a .903 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average, both the worst of his NHL career. However, his track record is still overwhelmingly positive, and he should bounce back next season.

At this point, though, it's clear that the Rangers need far more of an overhaul.

Head coach Peter Laviolette is basically a dead man walking at this point, as his questionable comments and lineup decisions have shown. General manager Chris Drury could be in that camp as well with his heavy-handed approach often backfiring, even though it sounds like he may be safe for another year.

This has been one of the Rangers' most disappointing seasons in their near-century-long history, and no matter what they do this offseason, getting out of this rut will be a challenge.