Thursday night I wrote on this site that I thought this series was over, and I can confidently say that I hate that I wound up being right. In my 14 years of watching this team, comparatively short to many of you out there reading this, this elimination is hitting the hardest of them all. Not because I am mad, but because I am disappointed it wasn’t their year and sad to see this season come to a close. The pain I feel after this one is in part due to the knowledge that there isn’t another game to watch the 2023-24 New York Rangers compete in tomorrow. We’ll try to do a little therapy here and see where that gets us before we move onto offseason content, lord knows we all need it.

I was in a pair of unique positions for Saturday nights 2-1 game six loss. Not only was I unable to watch the game for large portions of the night due to some TV service issues (no ones fault), but I was watching with people who were mostly uninterested and or less invested than I was, certainly fine if you’re not a fan but difficult to be ones self around. Now it is no secret amongst those who know me that I am an animated fan who roots for the team passionately, but I did my best to curtail that passion while in mixed company Saturday night. The feed went out near the end of the first period at 0-0, I then did my best to follow along on my phone and was aware of the Blueshirts 1-0 deficit. The feed came back on, I kid you not, shortly before Vladimir Tarasenko (of all people) scored the goal that ended the Rangers season. Unfortunately, my sadness was on display for all to see but at some point, you can’t help it anymore, as I watched another hopeful season tick away. From what I gather it was ultimately another copy of an elimination game we have seen before, like in 2022, 2015 and 2012, as the Rangers battled to the end but just didn’t have enough. There will be moments to look back on and performances that will draw criticism but, in the end, for all the 1994 wish casting, there were more eerily similar bad omens that began to pop up as this series went on…avert your eyes below.

Maybe it wasn’t meant to be, maybe the Panthers were just the better team. In truth it is likely a bit of both as the Panthers deserve immense credit for being the team they are, as hard as that is to accept. Paul Maurice’s group is as well assembled and drilled a team as you’ll find and will likely go on to win the whole thing when all is said and done. Perhaps that’s what makes this exit hurt even worse, as I believe the Cup winner was going to come from this conference final tilt. It is an unbelievably harsh ending to such a wonderful season as just a week ago were celebrating a 2-1 series lead with an eye on the continuing the run.

Fingers will be pointed and theories of how to improve the team will be offered. I will throw my hat in that ring myself, but I just don’t have it in me right now. My affection for this particular group, probably my favorite that I have watched, is hard to put into words and I can’t appreciate the joy they brought me this season enough. This Ranger team gave us a lifetimes worth of memories jam packed into just one season, which is why it will hurt to see someone other than them cap their season of memories with Lord Stanley above their head. Many of them will be back, some will not, and we’ll cover all that and more in the weeks ahead here at the site. All I can say now is thank you boys, it was a pleasure.

A few weeks ago, on this site I gave you an insight to the kind of fan I am when I wrote about Jurgen Klopp, and how his outlook on sports influenced mine. Klopp always preached that the journey through the season, from joyous highs to the bitter end, should be heavily valued because ultimately in the end only one team is going to win it all. That doesn’t mean you accept losing but that you should try where and when you can to enjoy the moments and memories made along the way. That is after all what being a sports fan is all about, it is the moments and experiences you get to have with your fellow fan along the way. And that is where my sadness comes into play when talking about this exit as there is now a Ranger sized hole in my life.

As I told you all when I started writing this series, and continued to add on to it, I consider New York Rangers hockey a family affair. I am blessed to follow this team with my mom who got me into this team, my girlfriend who willingly puts up with my obsession with the team and has joined me in that obsession, my friends who I know I will have for life because we follow this team together, and most of all my season ticket seatmate, my Dad! All of whom I spend the season talking about the team with virtually all the time. My Ranger family always get a bit bigger every year and this season I was fortunate enough to begin working with the gang at The Rangers Ed. Podcast and add them to the fold here at The Broadway Breakdown. We have big things planned in our growing partnership so stay tuned for more. We all got to see some amazing things this season and I wanted to take a second to share some of my favorite memories from it, cause after all, I am a sentimental fan at heart.

I want to leave you all with this before I sign off, and it once again comes from Jurgen Klopp. He and Liverpool fans like me had a saying when the season ended in disappointment, “we will go again,” meaning that it is tough now, but we will rally ourselves and back the team when the new season starts. It feels appropriate to say in this moment now, as frankly it is one of the things getting me through the night following this loss. We Ranger fans and this team will go again next year. It may not look exactly the same, it won’t be easy, and it will take all of us (on and off the ice) to get it done, but that’s sports and that’s life. So, it’s so long and thank you to the 2023-24 Rangers and onto 24-25, let’s make it THE year!

I want to close by saying thank you to all of you who read this series closely and helped contribute to some of its editions along the way. I do it for you and that will continue for a long time to come. While the games are over, we will bring you coverage of the Rangers and the NHL offseason in this series and in Around the Rink before we take a bit of a break for the summer. Unfortunately, the “Spring of Dreams” at MSG came up short, but hey, the Yankees look damn good New York! Can’t say the same for the Mets. You can find me on Twitter @YNWA9623 and subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. We have also launched a podcast which carries the same name as the Instagram account. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! We’ll be back with more soon!