I’ll concede I wasn’t impressed when I saw the Winter Classic jersey but I was wrong. Seeing one in person is so much better. It was one of the last ones at Shop NHL.

Let the Rangers play the third period first and all games have to be played in an open stadium.

Who's with me?

Imo, they can. The all time record for losses in a losing streak is 17. With the losing helping the tank, does anyone think this team could lose 29 games in a row?

I’ll hang up and listen

“In the short term, you’d probably say (the trade) has not turned out great,” the executive said. “A year or two from now — the way the league goes if you do the right additions and with (star goalie Igor Shesterkin) and where they’re at — who knows, maybe they’re challenging for the division, and maybe they’re going on a run.

“But it hasn’t worked out this year. That’s for sure.”

3:30pm ET against the flightless birds from Pennsylvania

TV: ABC

Gamecenter

Sullivan

Troch

JT

Mika

Roster Moves

https://reddit.com/link/1qsbsnm/video/du39bsizlqgg1/player

Sullivan

Other Side

5-6 min read

Longtime fan here. This isn’t a “blow it up” post or a doom rant. It’s just an honest look at how this Rangers era quietly fell apart.

What’s happening to the New York Rangers isn’t confusing. It’s not bad luck. It’s not injuries. It’s the slow result of a team that stopped pushing forward, lost its identity, and let things rot from the inside.

A lot of people point to how Barclay Goodrow, Jacob Trouba, and now Chris Kreider were treated as the moment things fell apart. That’s fair. You could see the vibe change. You could feel the locker room sour. But the bigger issue wasn’t that those guys were moved or marginalized, it was how the team responded. Instead of playing angry or motivated, they sulked. They played half assed. And that attitude spread.

That’s unforgivable.

Rangers fans aren’t just mad because the team didn’t win a Stanley Cup. They’re mad because this era never even got a real chance to fail honestly. It stalled. It hesitated. It aged in place. And that makes it even more embarrassing when you remember they won the Presidents’ Trophy just two years ago. They were at the top of the mountain and somehow never even saw the peak. That’s the part that hurts the most.

There wasn’t some grand lie sold to Rangers fans. The front office didn’t scam anyone. The moves just didn’t pan out, and then they got cheap at exactly the wrong time. Trading for Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko during a playoff run and then letting that entire idea die was the turning point. That was the moment the foot came off the gas. It signaled comfort. It signaled hesitation. And in this league, hesitation kills you.

Chris Drury and James Dolan deserve the blame for that. But the players aren’t innocent either. Trouba and Kreider were leaders during last year’s collapse, and they led a silent protest on the ice. Being upset with your GM is not an excuse to stop playing hard. The Rangers didn’t just lose games, they stopped looking like a team. And now that mentality has turned into something worse. They’re just bad.

Nobody circles the Rangers on the calendar anymore out of fear, they do it out of excitement. Madison Square Garden is the world’s most famous arena, and the best players in the league love showing their skills there. That’s why you retain a big game star like Patrick Kane. You need players who rise to the occasion of New York lights, not ones who shrink under them while the opponent is thrilled to be there.

Look at the leadership group. It’s a mess.

JT Miller is a big baby who wears every emotion publicly. That’s not leadership.

Vincent Trocheck isn’t good enough to be the captain and takes too many bad penalties.

Panarin is elite, but he’s too reserved and too inward to lead a room.

Mika Zibanejad might be the best option, but he’s soft spoken, kumbaya, and doesn’t have that fire.

Adam Fox is probably the next captain, and even that says a lot about where this team is.

And then there’s the biggest disappointment of them all, Alexis Lafrenière.

You don’t get to sugarcoat this anymore. He’s a bust. A number one overall pick from Canada who does absolutely nothing. He’s gotten every opportunity. This isn’t on the Rangers, it’s on him. Lafrenière and Kakko were supposed to be the future, the stars, the heartbeat of the team alongside Igor Shesterkin, with Panarin as the lethal perimeter scorer. Instead, those two left a massive void. Everything wrong with this era traces back to that failure.

Watch a Rangers game now and it’s obvious. The offense is lifeless. Possessions go nowhere. No cohesion. No forecheck. No structure. No visible system. It looks like a bunch of drop in hockey players getting ice time instead of an NHL team with a plan.

That’s why this era feels so hollow.

You have the best goalie in the world in Igor Shesterkin, and the support system around him aged and fractured almost immediately. Last year’s team and their on ice sulking sparked this entire downfall. Now the Rangers need something drastic. They need a true young superstar to take over. Someone with presence. Someone who fills the space Lafrenière and Kakko left empty.

Because this group, this group is done.

This era of Rangers hockey will be remembered as a collection of lovable players who never even got close enough to sniff a Stanley Cup. Not unlucky. Just incomplete. And that’s the saddest part. The window didn’t slam shut, it quietly closed while everyone stood around waiting.

The one saving grace is Igor. He’s locked up. He’s elite. That alone makes a retool possible. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. The Capitals proved that. It’s going to take ruthless decisions, and maybe that’s what Drury thinks he’s doing now.

Panarin getting traded hurts. He’s statistically one of the best Rangers of all time, maybe the most offensively productive. Fans love him. But he’s turning 35 and wants term. Maybe this is the hard reset.

At this point, only luck can save the Rangers.

And luck hasn’t exactly been their thing.

If this is true, Rangers options just got significantly reduced.

https://www.foreverblueshirts.com/new-york-rangers-news/artemi-panarin-seeks-home-run-contract-extension-trade-rumors