The Rangers cleaned out their lockers on Tuesday following their Eastern Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers.
As players prepared for the offseason, they spoke to reporters about how the season ended and what's to come.
Here are the highlights...
Adam Fox played through a knee injury in the playoffs
Fox wasn't himself in the playoffs, and now we have one potential reason why -- he "reaggravated" his knee injury during the Rangers' sweep over the Washington Capitals in the first round.
But he was not looking to make any excuses.
"I was able to play," he said. "Once you're out there, you're expected to perform. So, not gonna sit here and say I was hurt or anything like that. When you're on the ice, there's an expectation to perform. I think that's the goal."
Fox looked better toward the end of the Panthers series, but his overall playoff numbers were not up to his standards.
In 16 games, he had zero goals and eight assists.
In the Rangers' last run to the Eastern Conference Final -- in 2021-22 -- Fox tallied five goals and 18 assists in 20 games.
Chris Kreider remains confident this group can win it all
One of the reasons the Rangers flamed out after taking a 2-1 series lead against Florida was that three of their biggest stars -- Kreider, Artemi Panarin, and Mika Zibanejad -- didn't produce much.
But Kreider remains confident this group can win it all.
"Yes," was Kreider's short and sweet answer when asked about his confidence level in the team being able to get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup.
Kreider, the longest-tenured Ranger, was part of the last Blueshirts group to advance to the cup final -- during the 2013-14 season against the Los Angeles Kings, when New York lost in five games.
Since then, the Rangers have made it to the Eastern Conference Final on three occasions (2014-15, 2021-22, 2023-24), losing each time.
Vincent Trocheck's words for Igor Shesterkin
Trocheck was seen consoling Shesterkin after Game 6 against the Panthers.
On Tuesday, Trocheck spoke about that moment.
"Shesty, I mean, he was our best player by a significant margin in the playoffs. If there was one guy I thought needed to hear that right after the loss, to kind of keep his spirits up -- I just told him he was our best player and he deserved better."
Peter Laviolette's season outlook
The Rangers head coach was asked a simple question: whether or not he considered this season a success.
Laviolette responded with a thoughtful and honest answer.
"There's a goal at the beginning of every year, and that’s to win the Stanley Cup. You work hard the entire year to build something, to put yourself in a position to achieve that goal and reach that accomplishment. So, by that standard the season was not successful. It fell short of where we wanted to be.
"If I’m being honest, I think there was a belief that was built throughout the season not just with our players but everybody that’s surrounded by our players, the organization and the fanbase, there was a belief that we were going to get this done. We truly believed that we were going to win the Stanley Cup, and I think you have that mindset to give yourself the opportunity to do that, to be successful and actually win it. With that comes a lot of disappointment, a lot of hurt and emptiness in your pit of your stomach that you didn’t get to where you wanted to go. So we didn't accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.
"There were a lot of good things that came from this year, a lot of positives from it, but ultimately its disappointing and frustrating for everybody, every New York Ranger fan, the organization, the staff, the coaches, the players. We wanted to get somewhere together. I believe we can get there."
