It was familiar and new, surprising and expected, disappointing yet seemingly inevitable. The New York Rangers season came to an end. Many teams and fans across the National Hockey League would consider the result successful.
For the Blueshirts and their faithful, it was a bust because it ended in defeat.
This time the Achilles heel was finishing games in which they were able to build leads. Rangerstown has seen it all and much of it twice, this mode of failure was reminiscent of the way the longest run of this century concluded.
Against the Los Angeles Kings in the 2013-14 Stanley Cup Final, they managed to lose the first two games on the road despite never trailing and holding two goals leads in both games, on three separate occasions in Game 2.