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At the very top of Page 123 in The Hockey News Yearbook, there's a prediction about the Rangers: 2ND IN METRO. (It was published last fall.)
It made sense. In 2023-24, the Beloved Blueshirts finished first and captured the ill-fated Presidents' Trophy.
Hey, if the Seventh Avenue Skaters could finish first last year, the least they could do this year would be runner-up and that's not too bad. THN agreed
Plus, somebody at THN figured the Rangers odds to win The Stanley Cup was 14-1; also not too bad.
Except "not too bad" turned into Cinderella's Pumpkin; ergo: worse than "not too bad." Try "Terrible times 1,000." Like THN, The Maven will review the final results, category by category:
OFFENSE: The core scorers led by Artemi Panarin all disappointed, especially Mika Zibanejad, Vincent Trocheck and Chris) Kreider. No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafrenière got the big $ and faded like the last rose of summer.
The first line missed an effective right wing all season. Kaapo Kakko was traded to Seattle where he has excelled. Reilly Smith was supposed to bolster the right wing but only bolstered his wallet. Fil Chytil's trade only worked after he left for Vancouver and suffered another concussion.
The two plusses were 20-goal left wing Will Cuylle and gifted grunt Jonny Brodzinski. The long awaited arrival of J.T. Miller was shortly disappointing. (He couldn't even make it to "captain."
DEFENSE: GM Chris Drury decided to jettison captain Jacob Trouba and that decision – plus dressing room repercussions – ruined the season. Adam Fox's game regressed, Ryan Lindgren was traded and Braden Schneider was okay; no more, no less. K'Andre Miller does not know how to play defense and should be traded.
Zac Jones is a gem but was miserably handled (too often benched) by Laviolette. Among the other flubs gathered along the way, only Seattle fifth-stringer Will Borgen amounted to anything. Altogether the D deserved an F.
GOALTENDING: Two colossal mistakes were made. 1. Igor Shesterkin demanded the highest goalie salary and 2. Drury foolishly conceded. Iggy was inconsistent and that, too, killed the Blueshirts. Jonathan Quick was adequate as a backup when needed and often better than Piggy iggy.
SPECIAL TEAMS: They drove the Rangers last year and failed up and down the line this term. The PK unit especially missed the traded Barclay Goodrow and, later, Jimmy Vesey, also miserably treated by Pistol Pete.
ROOKIES: Only Adam Edstrom and Brett Brerard really enthused me. Neither Brennan Othmann nor Gabe Perreault impressed while Matt Rempe was more a Sideshow Charlie than player; and egregiously mishandled by coach Laviolette until the club was eliminated. Suddenly, he was Rempe, the star!
THE BRASS: A double disaster. Drury torpedoed the team with absurd moves and Lavvy lost the team by mid-season. Both should be canned but Drury will survive with his media and assorted other connections.
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