Rangers coach reacts to playoff miss: ‘nobody’s thrilled with where we’re at’
Mike Sullivan wasn’t so happy to be asked about the New York Rangers being eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention following their 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
Though this moment’s been inevitable for quite some time considering the Rangers reside in last place in the Eastern Conference and own the second worst overall record in the League, Sullivan snapped at a Toronto-based reporter postgame.
The reporter prefaced his question about New York being officially eliminated by saying, “I hate to ask, but …”. To which Sullivan interjected, “Then why are you asking?”
After getting past that awkward moment, the question was fully delivered, and the Rangers coach provided a fair, if brief, answer.
“My response is that nobody’s thrilled with where we’re at,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to try and instill a certain standard here that we can build on moving forward.”
That drive to create a better standard was evident Wednesday. They peppered Toronto goalie Joseph Woll with a season-high 43 shots and had a 69.75 percent expected goal share 5v5, per Natural Stat Trick.
“I thought we deserved a better fate tonight,” Sullivan said. “It didn’t happen.”
So, it’s official: the Rangers summer vacation begins after their regular-season finale at Tampa Bay on April 15. With 10 games left, the Rangers (28-35-9) are the only team in the Eastern Conference below the NHL version of .500. The Vancouver Canucks (21-41-8) are the only team in the NHL with a worse record.
And it marks the second consecutive season missing the playoffs after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as NHL regular-season champion in 2023-24.
Rangers’ elimination ‘still hurts’ despite inevitability
As he’s done all season, Mika Zibanejad stepped up in a big way Wednesday. He did his best to help the Rangers rally from 3-0 and 4-2 deficits by scoring twice; his second goal of the game with 6:56 remaining got the visitors within one.
Alexis Lafreniere continued his post-Olympic scoring surge (eight goals and 17 points in his past 13 games) with a power-play goal and two assists. Gabe Perreault had the primary assist on Zibanejad’s second goal.
Zibanejad’s two-goal night gives him 282 with the Rangers, moving him past Adam Graves into fourth place in franchise history. That wasn’t much consolation for Zibanejad, who leads the Blueshirts with 32 goals and 69 points – and is one of the few Rangers who’s had a consistently productive season.
“Obviously this is not what we wanted when we started the season, I don’t think any team wants this,” he said about being eliminated from playoff contention. “It’s obviously tough, but it hasn’t come as a surprise in terms of this happening — it was a matter of time looking at the standings doing the quick math. But it still hurts.
“You play to win and we are in the situation we are in — it’s obviously a tough one.”
Rangers captain J.T. Miller says ‘it sucks’ to miss playoffs again
Despite a much-improved effort after managing just 10 shots in a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Monday, the Rangers came up short, yet again, Wednesday. They’ll be playing for pride, not playoffs, during their final 10 games, including a seven-game homestand that begins Friday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.
This latest game was a solid response after the embarrassing loss to the Senators two nights earlier. But in the end, the result was the same, and the losing streak extended to six straight games (0-5-1).
“Definitely the opposite of last game,” Miller explained. “Thought we outplayed them for pretty much the entire game, shot the puck a lot more, had a more direct mentality, skated more.”
The only benefit to all the losing is having a better chance to win the NHL Draft Lottery.
That’s no consolation to Miller, whose injury-plagued season was one of the big reasons the Rangers are where they are today.
“I don’t think anybody thought we’d be where we are right now, eliminated with this many games left,” said Miller, who was named the franchise’s 29th captain during training camp. “But that’s not where my mind is right now. It sucks. Obviously, that’s the worst. You don’t want that. Right now, we’re just worried about playing good hockey games to end the season and feeling good going into the summer, feeling good about our game at least. Try to move in the right direction.
“Obviously, we failed in reaching our goal this year.”
