5 Embarrassing Rangers Playoff Losses

The New York Rangers have had a lot of rough games over the past season and a half. Most games have resulted in losses, some of which are harder to swallow than others. However, nothing compares to the raw emotions of the Rangers’ painful playoff losses. Having to wait two or three days for the chance to get started again, or in some cases being sent home, feels terrible. While I’m also looking at the Rangers’ best playoff wins since 2011, it felt appropriate to first look at the Rangers’ most painful playoff losses over the past two seasons.

10. 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, Game Six

The Adam Henrique game. You may think this was a lot worse than me, but a lot of the logic to me determines how realistic it was for the Rangers to make a legitimate run. The Rangers would have loved to have had a Game Seven and might have even won that game, but I don’t believe the Rangers would have beaten the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final.

It’s great to reach the Stanley Cup Final, but the Rangers were running aground at this point in the postseason. In retrospect, it doesn’t hurt that much.

9. First round match seven 2023

I’m sure many of you think I’m crazy for this. But embarrassingly losing a Game 7 (of which the Rangers were supposed to be the kings) to the archrival Devils was incredibly hard to swallow. No one played well in Game 7, the Rangers looked unprepared to play and a really good Rangers squad was dismissed without even winning a round.

Considering East was still wide open in 2023, it felt like a missed opportunity and a huge blemish on the team’s core.

8. 2014 Stanley Cup Final Game Three

By my own logic, this should be further at the top of the list. Sure, the Rangers lost games one and two in brutal fashion, but they returned to Madison Square Garden for the first home Stanley Cup game since winning the Cup. Well, they got shut out and poof, the Rangers went down 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, essentially being eliminated. The only reason this isn’t closer to the top is because the game never felt like it was the Rangers way.

7. 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, game four

The Rangers were just one goal in overtime away from taking a 3-1 lead against the eventual Stanley Cup champions. This game felt like the best opportunity for the Rangers and to this day it feels like the team knew it. When Sam Reinhart scored a power-play goal after Blake Wheeler’s overtime penalty, the series felt like it was the Panthers way. It did.

6. 2014 Stanley Cup Final, Game 5

A blast, I know. Another tough loss in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final saw the Rangers packing. Worse, the Rangers lost in a manner captured in commercials, highlights and more. But again, context is important. The Rangers did not come back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Finals. The series had already been lost to significantly more painful losses (more on that in the next article), so the pain was immediate rather than persistent.