For as much as every professional sports league in the United States attempts to prevent it from happening, organizations tank every single year. Simply put, with the incentive to lose so straightforward in the form of a better draft pick, it’s a clear choice for a mediocre team. Bottom out and get a better pick, stay competitive and get smoked in a short playoff series.
Now, if the New York Rangers were even a mediocre team there’d be some semblance of an argument to continue rolling with Henrik Lundqvist for 3/4 of the games down the backstretch, but as the Pittsburgh Penguins proved, the team that plays hockey at Madison Square Garden is so far away from mediocrity.