The New York Rangers are eliminated. They will not win the Stanley Cup in 2024 as the Florida Panthers eliminated them in six games. It was a very entertaining series between two teams that thought they had a chance to win.
The New York Rangers won the President’s Trophy as they had the NHL’s best record during the regular season. They made it a lot farther than most recipients of the President’s Trophy ever do but their journey has come to an end.
Some decisions need to be made for the Rangers during the off-season but they likely will run it back with a similar group in 2024-25. It was a good year for them but they are running out of time to win the Stanley Cup with this group.
Now that they are out, they have to base their future decisions on what made them vulnerable in this round against the Panthers. These are the three biggest reasons they won’t be winning the Stanley Cup:
The New York Rangers were not good enough at 5 on 5 in the playoffs
The New York Rangers got through the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes but the way they did it is not a recipe for success. They relied heavily on their goaltender and power play which is hard to do deep in the playoffs.
They only outscored their opponents at 5-on-5 in five of their 16 postseason games. It was game one of the playoffs vs Washington, games three and six against Carolina, and games three and four against Florida.
At 5-on-5, the Rangers barely outscored Washington 7-5. They were then outscored by both Carolina (13-12) and Florida (9-7). It is borderline impossible to win playing that style of game.
Igor Shesterkin was amazing but no goalie can be good enough to overcome that type of play at even strength. They need more in that area next year if they want to make another deep run.