This was the day when reality finally hit, and it hit hard.
It has been an emotional few days for the Rangers, and it came to a head when the organization prudently decided to scratch three of their biggest trade pieces — Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Hayes and Adam McQuaid — keeping them safe before any deals were consummated prior to Monday’s 3 p.m. deadline.
The remaining players then went out and beat a mostly lifeless Devils team, 5-2, at the Garden on Saturday afternoon — barely making it easier to swallow the harsh fact the Blueshirts are moving on from such well-liked mainstays.
“It was very emotional, before the game as well,” said Mika Zibanejad, who was missing his right-winger and best bud, Zuccarello. “I had a bit of that last game, knowing that this could happen and knowing it could be the last game with that guy on my right.
“It was hard, it was hard to see him here and not be ready to play and be part of it. But it’s a business. Still, we’re human beings. Don’t know how to deal with it, really. I don’t think anyone really has the answer how to.”
General manager Jeff Gorton has been clear on how he will deal with this deadline, trying to accelerate the rebuild that started in earnest just over a year ago. Zuccarello and Hayes are career-long Rangers, but both forwards reached a near-impasse with on contract extensions and their status as pending unrestricted free agents makes them prime rental pieces for contending teams.
There is interest in both players, but the market was not at full bore yet by Saturday afternoon. Both could last through the weekend as Rangers, which would again make them healthy scratches for Sunday afternoon’s match at Washington.
McQuaid, the righty-shot defenseman who is also a pending free agent, proved to be a nice acquisition for the Rangers this fall in a deal with the Bruins. And he was the prime example of how risky it could be playing these games, leaving Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Wild late in the first period with an upper-body injury. Yet the 32-year-old practiced fully on Friday and was just fine.
Nevertheless, he sat out with Hayes and Zuccarello as a precaution, with the Rangers (27-26-8) no longer pretending the playoffs are plausible, with coach David Quinn even admitting that in a candid moment after the game.
“I’m not an idiot. I understand the situation we’re in,” Quinn said. “But we have to keep moving forward.”
That was made marginally easier by the Devils (24-30-8) already in shell mode, having benched trade piece Marcus Johansson for the second straight game and having traded defenseman Ben Lovejoy earlier Saturday. They came out lifeless, and the Rangers got power-play goals from Jimmy Vesey and Ryan Strome in the opening 8:54, with Kreider adding his team-leading 25th at 14:23 to take a 3-0 lead into the second period.
Goalie Alex Georgiev turned aside all four shots in the first period and all 13 through the opening 40 minutes, but was beaten by Kenny Agostino at 2:20 of the third to make it 3-1. Then Brady Skjei scored his fourth of the season at 11:08, Devils captain Andy Greene added one at 4-on-4 at 12:59 and Strome got his second of the game into the empty net to finish things off.
“Winning feels a lot better than losing,” Quinn said. “We still have a chunk of games here.”
As difficult as it can be to deal with, those games will be played without these keys pieces. Everyone already has said their goodbyes. Soon, Gorton will pull the trigger, and then this will be the stark reality of the rest of the season.
“It’s hard to look around and not see them. Not used it,” Zibanejad said. “It wasn’t an easy game, I think more mentally and emotionally than physically. But we got through it.”