New York Rangers Peter Laviolette Reflects on Season

The New York Rangers’ run in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs can to a halt at the hands of the Florida Panthers. After winning two out of the first three games in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Rangers and coach Peter Laviolette lost three in a row to be eliminated in six games.

It is a tough way to go out for the team that finished the regular season with the best record in the NHL. The New York Rangers were dominant to begin the postseason, winning their first seven games; they swept the Washington Capitals in Round 1 before going up 3-0 on the Carolina Hurricanes in Round 2.

Unfortunately, their offense began cooling off, and not even the heroics of star goaltender Igor Shesterkin could get the team over the hump. New York lost six of their next nine games in the postseason, ending on a low note.

Despite how things ended, Peter Laviolette had only good things to say about his team. They were disappointed to not achieve their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup, but he was happy with how hard his team played.

“Listen, our guys fought this year,” Laviolette said. “They bought in right from the start. It’s disappointing; when you start something like this you don’t do it to get three wins in the playoffs or five wins in the playoffs. You do it to go the whole way.”

The 2023-24 season was the first for Peter Laviolette as coach of the Rangers. He had spent the previous three seasons with the Nashville Predators. The New York Rangers are the sixth team that Laviolette has coached, as he has taken all of them to the postseason at least once.

With the Rangers falling short of the championship, this is the 11th consecutive season that the best team in the regular season won’t be hoisting the Stanley Cup at the end. They are the latest team to run into the buzzsaw known as playoff Sergei Bobrovsky.

This is the third time in six years that Bobrovsky was in the net to eliminate the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Before the New York Rangers this year, he did it against the Boston Bruins last season and the Tampa Bay Lightning as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019.