So many times this season, the New York Rangers were booed off their home ice at Madison Square Garden. Not Thursday. But there was still a bittersweet vibe to the proceedings at MSG, when the Rangers closed out their 2024-25 season with a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning .
It's only mid-April, but it's the offseason. Mika Zibanejad reflected postgame on how heading to The Garden on a beautiful spring day Thursday conjured thoughts of what it's like to be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Except the Rangers are not in the playoffs. There's no more hockey to be played following one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history. The Rangers (39-36-7) finished 11th in the Eastern Conference , six points out of the second wild card and the same amount shy of third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Since they would've owned the tiebreakers, the Rangers needed only 91 points to be a playoff team for the fourth consecutive season. They somehow stumbled their way to 85, buoyed by four points picked up a in a pair of meaningless wins after they were eliminated from postseason contention.
Good on them to put forth a decent effort Thursday in front of the home faithful. It's the least they could do after a nauseating amount of no-shows this season. There were hugs and tears — both on the ice and in the stands. A definite sense of finality. This miserable run is over. And from a larger perspective, so, too, is the largely positive extended run of this team's core.
On to what's certainly expected to be a busy offseason.
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Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Here are three Rangers takeaways from their final game of 2024-25, a 4-0 home win against the Lightning.
It was a lovefest for Sam Rosen at The Garden and on the MSG Network broadcast Thursday. Sure, he had his Salute to Sam day already to commemorate 40 years behind the mic calling Rangers games. But this was even more special, Sam's final broadcast calling a Rangers game. The soundtrack for multiple generations of Rangers fans going silent.
Each Rangers player wore a No. 40 jersey during warmups with ROSEN stitched on the back. He received a third-period standing ovation and jumbotron salute. And finally, Sam was named the First Star of the game. Sorry Igor Shesterkin . You'll have more shutouts in your career.
And one nice touch by MSG Network at the end of their broadcast, to bring Rosen together with his successor — the only logical choice to replace him next season — Kenny Albert.
Oh, and this from Zibanejad, who also presented Rosen with the stick he used in that epic five-goal game against the Washington Capitals on March 5, 2020.
"I'm just happy we won. It was a good score with the 4-0 for Sam (Rosen), as well."
Another major player in Rangers history may have had his final game with the organization Thursday, too. Chris Kreider met the moment by scoring his 326th goal with the Rangers and then fittingly added an assist, perhaps one last time, on his BFF Zibanejad's 20th goal of the season.
When Will Cuylle retrieved the puck for the third-leading goal scorer in franchise history, it had the feeling that this was the final goal Kreider will score for the Rangers. The 33-year-old has two years remaining at $6.5 million per on his contract, and a partial no-trade clause. But ever since his name was revealed in Chris Drury's trade memo in November, there's been this morose vibe around Kreider that this was his last run on Broadway. A big drop in production, his back issues and all the losing doesn't exactly make Kreider a prime candidate to return next season.
As has been course for several months now, Kreider refused requests to be interviewed postgame. It'll be interesting how open — or not — he is at breakup day. But Thursday did have a feeling of finality to it for Kreider.
Again, it was Zibanejad, who simply summed up the feeling postgame, when this miserable season was finally over.
"Kind of empty."
Indeed, empty is the perfect word for the moment.
With so much excitement heading into this season, it's really incredible how the energy and love for this team was zapped by their poor play and, quite often, lacking compete level. From Stanley Cup contenders that had reached the Eastern Conference Final in two of the past three seasons, to, well, emptiness. Nothing. Going home on April 18.
"Especially the older you get, you really want to be playing this time of year, but this is where we're at. We can't change it. It sucks," J.T. Miller summed up .
