NEW YORK - Let’s just come out and say what many of us have been thinking for the better part of four months.
The Rangers are toast.
Mathematically, there’s still a chance. Monday’s 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Madison Square Garden didn’t eliminate the Blueshirts from playoff contention. But the last two-and-a-half days have seen those odds plummet, with just about every result working against them.
Not only have the Rangers (36-34-7) continued to bury themselves with back-to-back losses, displaying an alarming lack of fortitude considering the make-or-break circumstances. But the team they’re chasing, the red-hot Montreal Canadiens, have won five in a row, including back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. That’s left New York six points back for the Eastern Conference’s final wild card with five games to play.
The Rangers can’t finish higher than 89 total points, which Montreal would achieve with only two more wins. And if the Habs capture five or more of the remaining 10 points available to them, it wouldn’t even matter if the Blueshirts won out.
That’s basically what they need to do in order to have a chance, but they haven’t been able to string together three consecutive wins since mid-November. Does anyone in their right mind believe the Rangers can win five in a row now?
Not this team. Not this year.
A damning 1:45
Would you believe me if I told you the Rangers were the better team for the first 12 minutes of Monday’s contest?
They came out with some jump, earning 12 of the game’s first 13 shots on goal.
The reunited line of Brennan Othmann, Jonny Brodzinski and Matt Rempe were buzzing on their first few shifts, with Rempe making his return after missing the previous four games with an upper-body injury. And the power play showed signs of life after flat-lining for a number of weeks, including a rebound chance for Vincent Trocheck that forced Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to make a desperate, swatting save at the 11:10 mark.
But hooking penalty on Chris Kreider crashed any early momentum for New York and swung it dramatically in Tampa’s favor.
The Lightning’s second, third and sixth shots of the game were all converted into goals, effectively burying the Rangers in backbreaking span of just 1:45.
It started with a failed Blueshirts’ shorthanded rush that turned into an easy counter for Tampa. Adam Fox lost the puck deep on a spinning passing attempt in offensive zone, allowing Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point to attack in transition. Kucherov dished to Point, then raced to the far post for a tap-in finish on the return pass.
The power play is buzzin' 👏 pic.twitter.com/1IEsdsIhBE
— x - Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 7, 2025
The Lightning lead would double on the very next shift, when Yanni Gourde outworked newest Rangers defenseman Carson Soucy to a juicy rebound in front of the net and backhanded it in.
Tampa culminated the devastating stretch with the second ...
