All of the ingredients were there for the New York Rangers. Their spiritual leader, Mika Zibanejad, was honored with the Steven McDonald Award. Henrik Lundqvist was going for his 450th win. They were playing a team that is statistically inferior. So what did they do? They played one of their worst games of the year with a disturbing lack of effort or emotion.
If these last few games are an opportunity for players to show what they are made of in the hopes of a job next season, the play tonight was inexplicable. Where was Vinni Lettieri, Boo Nieves, John Gilmour or Jimmy Vesey?