The Panthers have got the Blue Shirts gassed out, like literally! These guys are redifining what grinding is, the Rangers must have felt like they were playing against 10 Bob Gaineys!!!
In the end I believe the best team won, NY tried very hard and managed to keep the series intense but I could see in this ultimate game that some players looked tired and beaten up.
This is why the Rangers lost, they were mucked up and out by the Panthers and let down in a big way by Kreider, Panarin and especially Zibenejad. It's very, very, very disapppointing. The Rangers had let Gerard Gallant go last year, reportedly, because players in exit interviews gave him bad reviews in what technical feedback they were getting from him on their games. In addition, Gallant candidly told management that he did not think they could win in the playoffs with the core of top players they have, who suffer from playing grinding teams. Management did not want to hear it, but it now looks as if Gallant was right. And the players cannot blame the lack of good coaching or technical help held them back this time.
Where do they go from here? I would like to see the extremely streaky Zibenejad moved- he has been streaky his whole career and this was exposed in the playoffs. However, how many takers will he have with a $68 million, 8 year contract that runs until 2030, and Z having just laid a jumbo egg in the last 2 playoff series? I really do not believe the coaching is the problem. Laviolette and staff did everything they could with the players they were given, made lots of moves, and none of them worked. This was, fundamentally, because they were let down by their top players getting completely and totally shut down. Good coaching does not overcome poor player performance on the ice.
The only other thing I can think of is a bad contract for bad contract trade involving Zibenejad. Not for Huberdeau, but for someone like that with a horrifyingly bad contract. The Yankees in recent years have proven somewhat adept at these bad contract deals (because they have made so many, they know what to do with them). Their strategy has been to get young, cheap productive pieces added to the trade, or else at least get a younger player with the bad contract. That is the strategy: take on the younger bad contract player with more money/years or bigger cap hit, add some young, cheap productive pieces to the deal to do so, and then unload your older bad contract player with less years remaining on it. Maybe you guys have some ideas? Habs have any bad contracts they want to move? Drury has his work cut out.
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