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NEW YORK – Rangers fans still showed up Thursday at Madison Square Garden, as they always do, to witness the end of a season which offered them very little to be proud of.
They’ve endured a disastrous 2024-25 campaign all the way through, beginning with a turbulent summer that pitted management against its leadership group and ending with a disturbing report from The Athletic alleging sexual assault claims against star forward Artemi Panarin.
Much of what happened in between wasn’t pretty, either.
The off-ice drama alone was head-spinning, while the on-ice product took a nosedive.
“Kind of empty,” veteran Mika Zibanejad said of his feelings as a season that started with high expectations comes to a bitter end. “Coming into the rink this afternoon with the weather being like it is, you’re used to kind of gearing up for playoffs. But that’s not the case now.”
The Rangers became the fourth team in NHL history to miss the postseason one year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy, dropping from a franchise-record 55 wins all the way down to 39.
They managed a 4-0 win over the Lightning in Thursday’s regular-season finale, but neither team had anything to play for.
Tampa Bay had already clinched its eighth consecutive postseason berth, while the Rangers are heading toward an offseason that’s filled with questions but promises more upheaval.
“Nobody really knows what this team is going to look like next year,” center Vincent Trocheck said.
That’s for sure, but the first order of business will likely involve head coach Peter Laviolette, who’s expected to be relieved of his duties in the coming days. (If not hours.)
“Those are things I can’t control,” Laviolette said. “The year certainly wasn’t where it needed to be. But right now, I’m here, and this is where I want to be.”
The coach won’t be the only one to pay the price for this mess.
The elephant in the room is Chris Kreider, who may have suited up for the final time as a member of the home team at MSG − exactly 13 years and one day after debuting as a fresh-faced kid straight out of Boston College.
Signs have been pointing in the divorce direction for months, with prevailing belief that the longest-tenured Ranger will be aggressively shopped this summer. He’s had a tumultuous season that saw his production fall off and his name appear in team president Chris Drury’s late-November trade memo, which caused rifts in the locker room and sent the team into a tailspin. Kreider has rarely talked in postgame settings since and had a PR staffer tell reporters he’ll wait until players gather to clean out their lockers and conduct exit interviews to address his situation.
The Garden crowd seemed to recognize the moment by greeting the 33-year-old forward with warm cheers when he was announced as part of the starting lineup. He was appropriately reunited with Zibanejad, his longtime linemate and close friend, then netted his 326th career goal at the 4:02 mark of the third period.
That moved Kreider within 10 tallies of Jean Ratelle for second of the franchise’s all-time scoring list, with Will Cuylle immediately gathering the puck as a potential memento.
Everyone in the building had a sense of what could be coming.
“You never know what’s going happen, but we just tried to get to play together again,” said Zibanejad, who scored two goals of his own to hit 20 for the eighth consecutive season. “Try not to make it too big of a deal. We just wanted to finish off the season in a good way and try to have some fun. I thought we did. … I’m happy we got to do that.”
The MSG faithful also saluted legendary broadcaster Sam Rosen in the final game of his 40-year career as the Blueshirts’ play-by-play voice, chanting his name as the final seconds ticked off the clock. He deserved better on his way out, but the memories he gave this passionate fan base will last a lifetime.
And then there was Panarin, who played in spite of Thursday’s allegations but will have a cloud hanging over him until they’re addressed head on. He came out to speak after the game, but declined multiple questions about the accusations, repeating some variation of, “I’ll just talk about hockey. Sorry, guys.”
The NHL issued a statement which read, “The Club retained an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which the League was fully apprised of. We consider the matter closed.” But when asked by lohud.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, if the investigation substantiated the accuser’s claims, an NHL spokesperson said, “The League statement is the extent of what we have to say on the subject.”
The lack of transparency will allow speculation to run rampant, while the truth will remain a point of contention heading into a long summer.
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.