Rangers' home finale becomes an unexpected reunion

The Rangers honored the returning trio with a video tribute after the national anthem. All three players — wearing white and blue Lightning sweaters — waved to the crowd and were on ice for the opening faceoff.

“It all felt a little weird,” McDonagh said after the Lightning routed the Rangers, 7-3.

It was an appropriate cap to a strange Rangers season on home ice. They have four road games left.

Cedric Paquette and Brayden Point scored twice, and Alex Killorn, Miller and Girardi also scored for Tampa Bay. The Rangers started the backup netminder Ondrej Pavelec.

“It was hard with a lot of emotions and thoughts coming into this game,” Miller said. “You just want to go out and play your game. And luckily, I got one to come on my stick in front of the net.”

After an abysmal October, the Rangers rallied through November and December and seemed poised to earn a playoff spot. But their defense faltered, and the team slumped over the first two months of 2018, dropping out of contention and leading to a public proclamation that major roster changes were coming.

In the course of a week in late February, the Rangers sent McDonagh and Miller to Tampa Bay, Rick Nash and Nick Holden to Boston, and Michael Grabner to the New Jersey Devils. Those moves helped complete a roster overhaul that began with the departures of Girardi and center Derek Stepan last summer.

With a new-look lineup that included the highly rated teenage forwards Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil, the Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday. Now, they are playing games without postseason implications for the first time since 2004, the closing days of Mark Messier’s career.

Girardi reflected on his lengthy tenure with the Rangers, saying he had given “blood, sweat and tears for 11 years” for the franchise. He also spoke of the strangeness of navigating the route to the visiting locker room after he and McDonagh stopped nearby at a coffee venue.

“It took us a while to get into the building,” he said. “We didn’t know where to go.”

This is uncharted territory for goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who made the playoffs in 11 of his first 12 seasons, the only previous miss coming on the final day of 2009-10 season in a shootout loss at Philadelphia.

“It has been a challenging time for everyone,” he said. “This is our group now. It’s up to us to figure out how we want to finish this.”

At 36, Lundqvist has three years left on a seven-year, $59.5 million contract extension he signed in December 2013, and he has vowed to finish his career as a Ranger.

Yet he acknowledged that it is not easy to glance across the ice and see defensemen who protected him through countless battles now wearing opposition colors.

“It’s hard to describe the feeling,” Lundqvist said. “It’s part of the game. It happens. You accept it.”

McDonagh’s departure marked the second time in four years the Rangers traded their captain to Tampa Bay. They exchanged Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis at the deadline in 2014, and the move helped the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Finals. Anton Stralman, a key defenseman on the Rangers squad that lost in those finals to the Los Angeles Kings, also plays for the Lightning now.

McDonagh, who because of an injury did not play his first game with Tampa Bay until March 10, is again paired with Girardi for the Lightning, the second-best team in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s pretty surreal. It feels like old times,” McDonagh said of the reunion. “It is great to be on the ice with him again, continuing to do the same things we did in New York.”

Miller, a somewhat surprising inclusion in the fire sale, has thrived with Tampa Bay, with nine goals and seven assists in 15 games.

The Rangers are playing with a spark since the roster reshuffle, which included the demotion of the high-priced defenseman Brendan Smith and season-ending knee surgery in January for defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, last summer’s major free-agent addition. Their blueline corps now includes the newcomers Neal Pionk, John Gilmour and Rob O’Gara, all of whom have impressed general manager Jeff Gorton.

But the Rangers still face many questions heading into their early offseason. Lundqvist’s understudy for next season is to be determined, though 22-year-old Alexandar Georgiev made a strong case for consideration in his 10 recent appearances. The Rangers also acquired numerous prospects in their various trades, and they currently have seven picks in the first three rounds of the June draft, including three first-round selections.

“I think we’re just starting the process,” Gorton said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

Forward Chris Kreider, who missed 24 games because of a blood clot that required rib resection surgery, has been buoyed by the work ethic and enthusiasm displayed by the lineup since his return in late February.

“Those guys, the little experience they have in them, they work hard and they want to get better every day,” he said. “Regardless of how old you are, the team’s going to lean on you at some point and you’re going to have to be a leader.”

The veteran Marc Staal, who has been a Ranger for 11 seasons, has become a mentor to Pionk, 22.

Now second to Lundqvist in seniority, Staal, 31, has earned particular praise from coach Alain Vigneault for his leadership. Staal exhaled slowly when asked to evaluate this uncharacteristic upheaval.

“I have nothing to compare this season to on a personal level,” he said. “This is a first-time thing.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Rangers' home finale becomes an unexpected reunion

Instead, the Rangers also welcomed back J.T. Miller and their former captain Ryan McDonagh, who were traded to Tampa Bay in February.

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