15 reasons this NHL season took place in the Upside Down

12. Rebuilding Rangers

The fall of the New York Rangers was expected, sure, especially after the team all but announced fans should expect poor play earlier this year as it begins to rebuilt. But the fall was never expected to be this far and certainly not this fast.

The squad dropped so precipitously that superstar goaltender Henrik Lundqvist wasn’t all that good and coach Alain Vigneault was fired at the end of the season.

It didn’t help matters that boffo-blowout free-agent signing Kevin Shattenkirk was a bust (that was sort of expected), but the rapid decline of everyone else on defense and the dealing of captain Ryan McDonagh from the blue line corps signified times were dire in the Big Apple.

General manager Jeff Gorton has his work cut out for him in a market that does not counsel anything short of a run for the conference finals every season. But the biggest concern could very well be the health of Lundqvist, who has three years left on a big contract ($8.5 million per, no-movement clause) and was hobbled by a knee injury for most of the season.