The Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers are the latest team to reinforce the lesson that the New York Rangers have yet to absorb and put into practice.
The Oilers are in the Cup Final for the second straight year, again matched up with the Florida Panthers , who advanced to the championship series for the third consecutive season – and who knocked the Rangers around and then out of the Eastern Conference Final in six games in 2024.
The reason for Rangers demise in that series was a simple one – the Panthers goal against every opponent is to push a team out of a series with brute force and physicality, which they've done very successfully in the past three postseasons. The Rangers were a victim along the way last year, when the Panthers hammered away at a team unprepared for that kind of challenge.
While the Oilers nearly overcame the Panthers in the Cup Final to win in 2024, rallying from an 0-3 deficit to force Game 7 before falling 2-1, they didn't have enough to match Florida's imposing presence, either. In falling in heartbreaking fashion, however, Edmonton gleaned wisdom and made changes – the kind the Blueshirts have steadfastly refused to affect for years, despite witnessing the right way to make a run at the chalice season after season.
Related: Rangers reportedly eyeing free-agent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov
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Edmonton is back for another crack at the defending champs because it knew it had to get bigger, stronger and meaner, whether it was going to face Florida again or similar opponents throughout the playoffs. The Oilers set out to muscle up their roster, and the success of that endeavor is a primary reason why Edmonton emerged from a stacked Western Conference field this year.
The addition of forwards Trent Frederic and defenseman Jake Walman before the trade deadline, winger Vasily Podkolzin last offseason and ageless wonder Corey Perry during the 2023-24 season transformed the Oilers into a nasty, edgy, hard-hitting group. Combined with menacing power forward Evander Kane being healthy after missing the entire regular season and limited in last year's Cup Final due to injuries, Edmonton has been giving as good as it's gotten through two games of this Cup Final, which is tied after the teams exchanged thrilling overtime victories .
Kane has 17 hits in the two games, and he, Perry and Podkolzin have consistently crashed the net and given Florida a major fight in the dirty areas around the net of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky . On the back end, Walman, Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm bring size and attitude to match up with a Panthers forward corps that counts on its ability to bully opponents into submission.
Mind you, the Oilers and Panthers still have plenty of speed and skill on their respective rosters. But becoming meaner and tougher mentally and physically — changing the team DNA and getting buy-in from the skilled talent — needs to be lesson finally learned by the Rangers.
Once again, the Rangers front office has all the evidence it needs to understand that significant change to the roster's ethos must take place for the club to become a serious championship contender. Of course, it's not as if it didn't before. Year after year, the Stanley Cup finalists boast toughness and brawn as necessary ingredients for chasing the championship.
The Rangers didn't learn their lesson after 2022, when the Tampa Bay Lightning erased a 2-0 Eastern Conference Final deficit to defeat the Blueshirts in six games thanks to their huge defensemen, who kept the Blueshirts away from the net and limited them to five goals in the last four games of the series.
They didn't learn from 2018-21 either, when every Cup winner – the Washington Capitals , St. Louis Blues and Lightning (twice in a row) – played a tough, gritty style perfectly suited to the grueling NHL postseason tournament. They didn't learn from watching highly-skilled Tampa , which after being stunningly swept in the first round by the upstart Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019, went through some significant soul-searching and began to prioritize players and a new approach that lent themselves to success in the postseason – and led to them lifting the Cup the next two seasons.
And they didn't learn from last season's beating by the Panthers, who demoralized the skill-first Rangers with their relentless physicality that left the Presidents Trophy winners wounded and overmatched. The Panthers, of course, were for years also known as a skill-based outfit, unequipped for the playoff gauntlet. The acquisition of power forward Keith Tkachuk in 2022 and a conscious effort to transform the DNA of their team were rewarded with perennial championship contention.
Now, the Oilers are the latest team to follow a similar road map to the doorstep of a Cup. Whether Edmonton prevails or not, it gave itself a chance to overcome the Panthers by adding in the required elements for winning a title in today's NHL.
Related: Rangers reportedly open to moving restricted free agent defenseman K'Andre Miller this summer
Will the Rangers finally, at long last, give in to reality? General manager Chris Drury appeared to see the writing on the wall after the Rangers were eliminated in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final by the Panthers. He cleared enough salary cap space to acquire J.T. Miller on Jan. 31 from the Vancouver Canucks . And we've seen more in the lineup from recent draft picks like Will Cuylle , Brennan Othmann , Matt Rempe , and Adam Edstrom , each of whom fits the mold of player they need.
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Yet a successful change is anything but guaranteed for a team that has only occasionally embraced this approach throughout its history, and much work on the roster still has to be done. The defense isn't nearly big or nasty enough and must be at least partially overhauled with tougher, more intimidating players. Up front, the Blueshirts still lean too much toward skill and away from will amongst the veteran core.
Drury will have to switch out not only some of the personnel, but the attitude in the dressing room – just as the Panthers, Lightning and the Oilers did in recent years. That could prove to be a tall order, and transforming this roster won't be easy with several expensive long-term contracts that will be difficult, if not impossible, to move.
Frederic ould be a great fit as a third-line center who could anchor a heavy forward unit. Drury could also look to target the type of defensemen his group so desperately needs via trade or free agency. The Rangers reportedly are open to any and all options out there, and seek to shake up the roster mix.
Otherwise, class will continue to be in session every June, with the Rangers again failing to learn what the Stanley Cup Final should have taught them years ago.
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