3 reasons the New York Rangers didn't win the Stanley Cup
The New York Rangers are out. The Florida Panthers beat them in six games.
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.
Artemi Panarin and the big boys didn’t show up enough as the playoffs went along.
The New York Rangers rely on their top guys a lot. That starts with Artemi Panarin who had 49 goals and 71 assists for 120 points in the regular season. He is one of the best players in the league.
Panarin and the rest of the big boys slowed down big time as the playoffs moved along. The Rangers need them going strong if they are going to win the Stanley Cup but they went cold.
In Panarin's case, he scored one goal and three assists for four points in the six games. That isn't good enough for a player of his caliber. His lone goal in the series didn't even come until the goalie was pulled in game six.
Mika Zibanejad had no points until game five when he collected two assists. He didn't score a goal or have another assist again so it was just two points for him in the series.
Chris Kreider, who is usually one of the top playoff performers for the Rangers, had one productive game in this series. He scored one goal and had one assist in game five. That was it for him though as they were the only two points he had in the series.
It is hard to win the Stanley Cup if your top guys aren't scoring. That was the case for the Rangers and they were eliminated as a result.
Jacob Trouba was not good enough for the New York Rangers
The New York Rangers expect their captain Jacob Trouba to be one of the best defensemen on their team. He was not that for them in this series or even in the playoffs at all.
For one, he puts his team in a bad spot a lot with his penalties. He likes to elbow people in the head and hit them up high a lot. He even received a 5000 fine in this series.
Trouba had ten total penalty minutes in the series which is a lot of time for the Panthers power play to get going.
He also wasn't very good when playing. He skated around a lot which led to a ton of puck chasing. The Panthers capitalized on a couple of these Trouba mistakes.
He certainly didn't contribute enough offensively either. He just had three assists and they all came early in the series.
If the Rangers want to win, Trouba needs to be better. Teams need their captains to be amongst the best players on the team and Trouba was far from being that guy for them. At his cap hit, they need more.
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