For the second consecutive season, the Rangers will be wrapping up their road schedule in Sunrise, Florida against the Florida Panthers. The site of the game might be the same, but the circumstances couldn’t be any more difference.

The end of New York’s 2023-24 campaign came in Amerant Bank Arena in a crushing Game 6 defeat in the Eastern Conference Final against the eventual Stanley Cup champions Panthers. From playing the highest-stakes hockey of the season last year, the Rangers will take the ice today for, as far as they’re a concerned is, a meaningless affair.

Saturday’s defeat against the Carolina Hurricanes officially eliminated Peter Laviolette’s squad from playoff contention. For the first time since the COVID-truncated 2021 season and the ghastly time in Rangers history that was the David Quinn era, there will be no playoff hockey on Broadway this spring. Some draft implications will be at play over the final two games, but that being the headline of today’s game from a Rangers perspective serves as one final disappointment in this nightmare of a season.

Player to Watch: Matthew Robertson

A second round draft pick by the Rangers in 2019, Robertson has been recalled from AHL Hartford as “break glass in case of emergency” insurance several times over the past few years, but has never drawn into the lineup for New York. That will change tonight as Robertson skates in his first regular season NHL contest. Braden Schneider will miss the final two games of the season with an injury, so expect Robertson play on Thursday as well. Keep an eye on Robertson was the Blueshirts use the remainder of their season to begin the evaluation process for next season.

Enjoy the game!