The Rangers have rediscovered their resilience since they shut the door on 2024, locked it and threw away the key in the Hudson River.
It resulted in a 10-game point streak that has salvaged their season and thrust the team right into the thick of the Eastern Conference wild-card race, but a 5-4 loss to the Avalanche on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden halted the run and served as a reminder that resiliency will only take them so far.
The Rangers were within seconds of extending the point streak, but Artturi Lehkonen scored with 14.7 seconds left in regulation to secure the win for the Avs.
This was the first of a tough two contests against two teams — the Avalanche and Hurricanes — who were just involved in one of the NHL’s biggest blockbuster deals in a while. Two clubs with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations making big moves to better their chances.
The Rangers have not been able to clear that Eastern Conference Final, and after a near catastrophic collapse earlier this season, there’s no question they are not just one or two pieces away from achieving their goal.
Not when stacked up against a high-octane Colorado team with game-changing skaters like Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon on the other end. That pair, by the way, combined for two goals and three assists.
A weak clearing attempt from Artemi Panarin led to a Juuse Parssinen one-timer, which whipped right under the glove of Igor Shesterkin to give the Avs a 4-2 lead in the middle frame.
In his first game since signing a five-year, $20.5 million extension with the Rangers, Will Borgen pounced on a loose puck in the crease to cut the Avs lead to 4-3 at the 18:05 mark of the second period.
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Panarin made up for the blunder, however, with a little under five minutes left in regulation. Evening the score at 4-4, Panarin put back a long rebound for his 21st goal of the season.
The Rangers may have erased two two-goal deficits, but couldn’t finish the job.
The Avalanche came out on top of an eventful first period, in which five total goals were scored.
With his uncle, Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury, looking on, Jack Drury notched his first goal with the Avs since getting traded from Carolina as part of a three-team NHL blockbuster deal on Friday.
Just 43 seconds later, Colorado tore through the neutral zone before Makar scored to double their lead.
But this is not the Rangers team that buckled at the first sign of adversity anymore. A fourth line of Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick and Matt Rempe have had a lot to do with that, and the unit jump-started the team’s response on Sunday.
Carrick buried his fifth of the season off a sweet backhanded feed from Matt Rempe. It took less than a minute and half for the Rangers to score another, when Vincent Trocheck banged home a pass from Alexis Lafreniere on a 2-on-1 rush.
The Avs, however, capitalized on their first power play to take a 3-2 lead into the second period when Makar recorded his second of the game and his 18th of the season.
