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Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

Where did it all go wrong? Four NHL teams that underwhelmed this season

By Chelena Goldman | Last updated 4/9/18

Some NHL teams just have a rough season. Other squads, however, come in with high expectations and fall on their faces. Here, we take a look at four teams that had the potential and hype to do better but couldn't make the postseason cut. We look at what went wrong and what may be on the horizon for four of the biggest underachievers in the 2017-18 season.

New York Rangers
In all honesty, the Rangers had an uphill climb early in the season, even when it looked like they could string a couple wins together. Their final game of the season encapsulated that. Despite Henrik Lundqvist's 35-save outting, the rest of the Blueshirts didn't show up to play in front of him and fell to the Flyers 5-0. It's no wonder they relieved Alain Vigneault of his duties as bench boss, making him the only coach to get the boot so far.

A slow start mixed with the over-reliance on the goaltending doomed the Rangers so much that they had a fire sale, shipping off big names like Rick Nash, J.T. Miller, Ryan McDonagh and more. New York has some big decisions to make in the impending offseason with a core group of players about to be restricted free agents. How many of them do the Rangers want back? The Rangers already look extremely different than they did when the 2017-18 season began, and they're bound to make further changes following a disappointing, playoff-less campaign in the books.

Calgary Flames

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

Remember back before Christmas when the Flames went on that winning streak and looked to be a threat in the Western Conference? It may seem like a distant memory, especially since they ended the season 11 points out of a Wild Card spot.

As Andrew Berkshire at SportsNet pointed out a couple weeks back, Calgary's rough home record had a lot to do with it. According to the players, however, they were just constantly playing catch-up.

"Even when we got back at Christmas... I still felt like we weren’t consistent enough," captain Mark Giordano told the Calgary Herald. "I guess that can sum it up — the consistency wasn’t there all year."

St. Louis Blues

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Blues had moments of greatness this season, and they kept their playoff hopes alive right until the last day, when they dropped their final decision to the Colorado Avalanche. When did it go wrong? If you took a look at Blues fan Twitter on Saturday night, you would think that netminder Jake Allen was the sole reason St. Louis missed the cut, but as NHL.com's Lou Korac points out, Allen didn't have much support from the rest of the team when St. Louis went through a rough stretch midseason. In fact, during a dismal 2-13-0 stretch, Allen only had an average of 1.67 goals from his teammates to help out.

That being said, it's no secret that a rebuild is on the horizon. After trading Paul Stastny and not stockpiling talent thereafter, the Blues looked more like a team willing to take a few steps back in order to plan for the future.

Chicago Blackhawks

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Chicago was already showing signs of a decline last season, but that still didn't prepare anyone for the rough 2017-18 campaign they ended up having. Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times reminds us that it wasn't just one thing that doomed the Blackhawks this season. Subpar seasons from the team's typically reliable core and the injury to Corey Crawford left Chicago floundering in a division with emerging teams out of Nashville and Winnipeg.

There's no denying that the Blackhawks need to stop hanging their hopes on past Stanley Cup wins and give the roster a face lift. Taking care of the defense will be tough with so many D-men under contract, but bringing in a suitable backup goaltender and giving the forward lines a tune-up are in order.

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