Postgame takeaways: NY Rangers pushed to the brink of playoff elimination

NEW YORK – The Rangers have been pushed to the brink of elimination in this depressing, dysfunctional season.

Wednesday’s 8-5 loss to the lowly Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden was the latest blow to their playoff chances, leaving the locker room in its most dejected state yet.

“I’m not going to get into what’s going on in the room,” said a stoic J.T. Miller. “But I think the frustration is probably evident.”

“It’s a [expletive] feeling in here,” defenseman Adam Fox added. “We’re hanging on by a thread at this point.”

There’s no escaping the harsh reality of the hole the Rangers (36-35-7) have dug themselves into.

The Montreal Canadiens need only one point in their final four games to put New York out of its misery. The Blueshirts could also end the pain on their own with a loss of any kind, with a trip to play the rival Islanders next up on the schedule for Thursday night.

That might feel like an appropriate end to one of the most disappointing seasons in the franchise’s nearly 100-year history.

“Let’s be honest: We haven’t really helped ourselves over the last couple weeks,” Mika Zibanejad said. “A couple weeks ago, I felt like it was in our hands still. Take care of the games that we had, but we haven’t been able to do that. That’s why we’re in this position. We’re not in this position solely because of tonight, and it stings.”

Apr 9, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Aleksei Kolosov (35) makes a save on New York Rangers left wing Will Cuylle (50) during the second period at Madison Square Garden.

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Sean Couturier dealt the final merciful blow to give the Flyers the lead for good, 5-4, with 8:05 remaining. Tyson Foerster added salt to the wound a short time later with a critical insurance goal before adding an empty-netter to complete his hat trick.

A second empty-netter from Owen Tippett capped a horrid defensive period in which the Rangers allowed six goals. It added up to the 22nd time this season they’ve surrendered five or more in a game and fifth time they’ve given up seven or more. The eights allowed tied their season high.

“We’ve been struggling back and forth with that all year,” Zibanejad said of the rampant defensive breakdowns. “I’m trying to come up with something else to say. I just feel like I repeat myself every time we have these scrums after a loss. Today just was just not good enough.”

A good start fizzles

The Flyers aren’t exactly a wagon, having entered Wednesday with the worst record in the Eastern Conference. And in the early going, the Rangers held a decisive edge.

They controlled much of the opening period, with a 12-5 advantage in shots and a shorthanded goal from Vincent Trocheck that gave them a 1-0 lead at the 11:33 mark. It was setup by a strong play from Zibanejad, who stole the puck from Philly forward Karsen Dorwart and flipped a backhanded lead pass to Trocheck.

The finish was even prettier, with Trocheck faking to his right before roofing a backhander past Flyers rookie Aleksei Kolosov.

Another power play fail

But nothing good ever lasts too long for these Rangers, who coughed up the lead by allowing the first two goals of the second period.

The first came from Foerster, who whipped a wrister by Jonathan Quick at the 9:03 mark following a couple failed clear attempts from New York defenseman Braden Schneider.

Garnet Hathaway put Philly ahead 7:40 later, capitalizing on yet another Rangers’ power-play flop to make it 2-1. It came off the rush after a failed zone entry, with Trocheck getting crunched by Hathaway at the blue line to jar the puck loose.

That made it four shorthanded goals allowed by the Blueshirts in the last six games. Meanwhile, their own power play has only scored four times in the last 19, including an 0-for-3 performance Wednesday.

“The shorthanded goals have been coming from us not executing getting into the zone, or being over-aggressive and kind of staying in – especially playing against some of the teams that are attacking a lot on their kill,” said Zibanejad, who finished with a season-high four assists yet still landed with a minus-one rating. “We should have been able to do a better job.”

The Rangers would respond swiftly, though, with their most reliable source of offense coming through to knot the score at 2-2 just 1:49 later.

Artemi Panarin had briefly gone to the locker room after taking a puck to the face, then returned to score his team-leading 35th goal of the season and 300th of his career.

Confusion, missed assignments, or both?

The back-and-forth action escalated in a sloppy third period that certainly won’t be used as a tutorial for youth hockey players.

“I didn’t like the way we attacked the period,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “The game, going into that period, it’s in the balance of who’s gonna decide it. And they played a better period than we did. We made mistakes and it ended up back of our net.”

The Rangers surrendered 17 shots in the final 20 minutes, with Swiss-cheese coverage and Charmin-soft net-front protection that’s been problematic all season. It came while missing defenseman K’Andre Miller for the second straight game due to illness.

“It’s just kind of the same story, right?” Fox said. “Breakdowns, confusion on who’s got who and guys are left wide open. … There’s times where we’ve got D running out high, trying to stick to their man and some miscommunications. Guys are left wide open.”

While Fox accurately depicted the issues that have plagued the team in Laviolette’s preferred man-to-man system, the bench boss continued to dig his heels in as questions about his job security swirl.

“There was no confusion out there,” he insisted. “There was just missed assignments.”

It sounds like we may be talking about the same thing here, but the bigger question is why those lapses are still happening with such frequency 78 games into the season?

“I’d love to have an answer for you,” Fox said. “But I just don’t have one.”

Two bad teams trading blows

The third-period collapse started with Noah Cates beating Fox to the net for a prime chance that was saved by Quick, but a juicy rebound came right to Travis Sanheim, who buried it to give the Flyers a brief 3-2 lead.

Jonny Brodzinski and J.T. Miller rallied with two goals in a span of 1:23 to put the Rangers back on top, 4-3, but it was all downhill from there.

Again, nothing comes easy for these Blueshirts.

An ugly breakdown, with defensemen Zac Jones and Will Borgen drifting completely out of the picture, left Jakob Pelletier and Emil Andrae all alone around the New York crease. The former had a clear path to a rebound he would finish to tie the score at 4-4 with 11:59 remaining.

Couturier and Foerster took it from there, with both Flyers scoring to render a late goal from Chris Kreider meaningless.

Couturier’s go-ahead tally came on yet another appetizing rebound given up by Quick, who finished a shaky night in net with only 22 saves on 28 shots faced. That dropped his season save percentage to .893, which is where it could stay 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.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Postgame takeaways: Rangers pushed to the brink of playoff elimination

Postgame takeaways: NY Rangers pushed to the brink of playoff elimination

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