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When the New York Rangers squandered a 1-0 lead in the third period and dropped Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals series to the Boston Bruins, they effectively closed the book on another season that should have ended far more positively. Sure, the Blueshirts are not eliminated just yet, but any win(s) in the remaining games of this series are simply delaying the inevitable. The Bruins will advance to the Eastern Conference finals, where the winner of the Pittsburgh Penguins/Ottawa Senators series awaits.
The discussion about what went wrong and how to fix it will soon begin for New York. It seems like a broken record, but the same issues that have plagued the Rangers the past few years surfaced once again in 2013. The Rangers can’t score. The power play is abysmal. Has John Tortorella’s system of coaching run its course?
It’s clear that no magic bullet exists in this league to fix the Rangers. One would have thought everything was put together a year ago when they won the East and advanced all the way to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals. But that was a team that overreached its ability and set a bad precedent. They were deemed a Stanley Cup contender all of a sudden when they are still a team with holes and deficiencies that no team hoping to be a champion can have.
