One of the great things about the start of any new sports season is that, no matter how dreadful one’s team might be, there’s always a honeymoon period
during which a club’s deficiencies can be ignored and hope can flourish. But with coronavirus wreaking havoc on the professional landscape this year,
that honeymoon period has become shorter than ever.
On Aug. 1, the NHL season official resumed, with a Stanley Cup Playoffs qualifying tournament that featured, against all odds, a New York Ranger team that would’ve been on the wrong side of the playoff picture in any normal year.
But when the play-in format was announced in July and the Rangers—who finished the regular regular season in seventh place in their own division—were going to be a part of it, I began to get greedy. I looked at their opponent in the higher-seeded Carolina Panthers and saw a team that the often-hapless Rangers had dominated thoroughly throughout the year. I saw that banged up stars like Chris Kreider would be back and healthy for the playoff push. I looked at rookie phenom Igor Shestyorkin as the missing piece, the kind of netminder who might be able to will the Blue Shirts to victory with some phenomenal performances
between the pipes.
And in doing so, I completely forgot all the reasons that conspired to keep the Rangers from making the postseason initially.
I was quickly reminded of that in Game 1, however.
With Shestyorkin sidelined with a mysterious “unfit to play” designation, veteran Henrik Lundqvist got the start and surrendered a goal just 1:01 after
the puck dropped.
It was a harbinger of things to come.
Four days later, it was over. The Rangers were swept in three straight games, exhibiting all of the flaws that made them so frustrating to watch throughout the
year. Defensive zone turnovers, spotty special teams play and offensive inconsistency had been a calling card all year long, but in my excitement to have Rangers’ hockey back on my television, I willfully ignored those traits to look at the Carolina matchup through rose-colored glasses.
And now, as the playoffs continue, I’ll be forced to watch the teams I don’t care about, or even worse the Islanders, take the ice on a nightly basis as my Rangers
head home for the summer.
For how much I had built up a potential deep playoff run in my mind, it doesn’t seem fair that it all vanished in the blink of an eye.
But as cruel as sports can be, there is, as they say, always next year. My despondency was assuaged somewhat on Aug. 10, when it was announced the Rangers had won the NHL Draft lottery to earn the first overall pick in the upcoming draft for the first time since the 1960s. We may not know exactly what next
season will look like, but you can be assured that, as it approaches, I’ll build myself back up to the same fever pitch that I had coming into last Saturday’s game.
And the nice thing is, no matter how the Rangers play next season, I’ll at least get to watch them for more than a week.
Follow Mike on Twitter @LiveMike_Sports
contact: sports@hometwn.com
