Recap: Rangers Lose 7–3 to Hurricanes, Become 4th Ever Team To Miss Playoffs After Winning Presidents' Trophy

Well, like Joe said in the Game Notes the other day, “don’t be sad that it happened, be glad that it’s over.” Thanks to another insufficient effort, the New York Rangers are officially eliminated from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They showed some sparks but per usual, it was too little, too late. The damage was done, the bed was made, the ship had sunk. 

1st Period:  

With no play stoppages through the first half of the opening period, Carolina caused the first one by finding the back of the net right around the midway point. A simple D-to-D play at the point allowed for Jalen Chatfield to let a wrist shot go from far out. Vincent Trocheck was a step or two behind getting in front of the shooting lane which allowed for the puck to go through traffic, off the post and in, 1-0 Carolina. 

The overall pace dropped significantly from that point on with Carolina spending much more time in the Rangers end of the ice. The Rangers were out-shooting Carolina 4-1 at one point in the period and ended up being out-shot 7-5 by the time the buzzer sounded. 

With just over two minutes to go in the first, another dominant shift for Carolina resulted in Trocheck hurting his hand after blocking a shot. Here’s a thought, if you’re in that much pain, go straight to the bench. You’re not doing yourself or your linemates any favor by limping around following the play. To be fair, Trocheck wasn’t the only one puck watching as the Hurricanes beat the Rangers to every single puck which allowed Seth Jarvis to make it a 2-0 game. 

Not how you wanted to start this one by any means but perhaps this is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with this team. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen them get outworked and practically bullied for lack of a better term against a clear-cut playoff caliber team. With everything on the line, it appeared they were allowing that to happen once again. 

2nd Period:

I… I don’t even know what to say anymore. Two minutes into the second period the puck was kept in the Rangers zone and Carolina continued to out work the Rangers without even doing much at all. Seth Jarvis at one point was the only Hurricane in the picture with at least four, if not all five Rangers standing around waiting for the play around them to unfold. Jackson Blake ended up getting the last whack at a puck in front that snuck past Shesterkin to make it a 3-0 game. 

With about seven and a half to go in the middle stanza, Alexis Lafrenière made a beautiful play to pass the puck over to Artemi Panarin. With a wide open net to shoot at, yes, you guessed it, Panarin nailed the post. Not even a minute later, play went the other way and big trade deadline acquisition Mark Jankowski put one in to extend the lead 4-0. 

With about two and a half to go, Matt Rempe was called for the first penalty of the game, slashing against Eric Robinson. Barely able to kill off the man advantage, the Rangers came out of it unscathed. As they regained the offensive zone, Will Cuylle let a purposeful shot go that beat Kochetkov glove side, 4-1 game. That one comes as Cuylle’s 20th of the season. 

Twenty minutes left for this team to pull themselves together in attempts to overcome a 4-1 deficit. Shots after two were 20-14 in Carolina’s favor. 

3rd Period:

A bit of a scary moment to start the third as Adam Fox went feet first into the boards just by the Rangers bench. This sparked a half-hearted response from J.T. Miller that slowly but surely, drew a crowd of sorts. Nothing worth any penalties and just two minutes later, Jordan Staal put what was likely the final nail in the coffin as he sailed a shot past Shesterkin underneath the blocker. 5-1 Carolina.

With fifteen minutes to go, the Rangers finally got a chance at the power play as Tyson Jost was called for a stick infraction trying to pickpocket Sam Carrick. After a minute of struggling to get anything going, J.T. Miller ended up with a clear shot from the slot off the face-off that found the back of the net, 5-2 game. 

Just a few minutes later, a strong zone entry from the Trocheck line left Adam Fox all alone in the slot off a nice pass from Artemi Panarin. Fox absolutely ripped a backhander off the crossbar and in to bring his team within two. As the Rangers were celebrating making it a 5-3 game, chaos ensued as Trocheck and Sean Walker got into a shoving match that escalated into a larger scrum. Penalties were assigned to make it a 4-on-4 but the Hurricanes were also challenging for goaltender interference. 

The goal stood and the Rangers came out of it with another power play which was a huge chance for them to turn this thing around. The Rangers wasted well over half of the man advantage and by the time they finally got set up, time was expiring to bring them back to even strength. With just under seven minutes to go, J.T. Miller came within inches of making it a one goal game but just couldn’t get the right bounce as Kochetkov and the Hurricanes battled to cover it. 

Time was becoming a concern, as it has in countless games where the Rangers were in need of a goal or two to pull off a come-from-behind win. In a season in which the Rangers have zero multi-goal comeback wins. Practically the second the Rangers pulled Shesterkin they turned the puck over in the neutral zone and Carolina sent it to the empty net. 6-3. Season over. 

For whatever reason, they pulled Shesterkin a second time just for Carolina to make it 7-3. The Rangers have two games left on the schedule but with this loss, they are officially eliminated from the playoff push. The lone bright side is now, they can hopefully focus on playing all the young forwards and trialing out who is worth salvaging from this massive failure of a season.