The Rangers were bulldozed again by the Islanders. With their playoff lives at stake and a chance to cut their crosstown rivals lead in the standing to just one point, they fell flat. That was due in large part to heavy hitting by players like Mike Martin, Cal Clutterbuck, and Casey Cizikas.
Heading into next season, the Blueshirts must finally take the painful lessons they learned in their qualifying round sweep to the Hurricanes, and manhandling by the Isles this year. It’s time to get big, mean, and strong on the bottom six.
Rangers may have a future grind line in the making
This is not a call to abandon the plan to continue to inject skilled players into the lineup.