The End Of A Great Run

With their gutsy 5-4 Game 6 loss today, the Rangers finally ended their impressive run through the 2007 NHL Playoffs. It might've gone differently if they hadn't given up that tying goal on Friday night, with 8 seconds left in the 3rd period, but we'll never know now. As it stands, they finished with a post-season record of 6 wins and 4 losses, meaning they won 60% of their games. By pushing the Sabres to six games in this Conference Semi-Final, they also managed to continue playing hockey longer than all but five other teams! When you consider that 12 teams finished the regular seson with more points than the Rangers, that says something about how they did this Spring! In fact, here's the list of teams who finished their 2006/07 campaign before the boys in blue did:

Philadelphia Flyers (finished 15th in the East)
Phoenix Coyotes (finished 15th in the West)
Los Angeles Kings (finished 14th in the West)
Washington Capitals (finished 14th in the East)
Chicago Blackhawks (finished 13th in the West)
Edmonton Oilers (finished 12th in the West)
Columbus Bluejackets (finished 11th in the West)
Boston Bruins (finished 13th in the East)
St. Louis Blues (finished 10th in the West)
Florida Panthers (finished 12th in the East)
Carolina Hurricanes (finished 11th in the East)
Montreal Canadiens (finished 10th in the East)
Toronto Maple Leafs (finished 9th in the East)
Colorado Avalanche (finished 9th in the West)
Atlanta Thrashers (swept by the Rangers in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Calgary Flames (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Minnesota Wild (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
NY Islanders (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Tampa Bay Lightning (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Nashville Predators (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Pittsburgh Penguins (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Dallas Stars (lost in the 1st round of the playoffs)
Vancouver Canucks (lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs, in 5 games)
New Jersey Devils (lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs, in 5 games)

Whew! That's a lot of teams who had worse runs than the Rangers this year!

Good luck to the Sabres, Senators, Ducks and either the Red Wings or Sharks (whoever wins that series), as it's only going to get harder from here! In the Rangers' great run to the Cup in 1994, it was the last two series that really pushed them to the edge, so it should be interesting to see how the two Conference Finals play out. Definitely Buffalo vs Ottawa should be amazing to watch! And we could end up with # 1 vs # 2 in the West, if Detroit prevails against San Jose.