Anything Less Than a Trip to the Stanley Cup Final Next Season a Disappointment?

Written by James Wrabel on Tuesday, August 21 2012 08:30.

In his look at which teams are in the hot seat heading into 2012-13, John Kreiser or NHL.com mentions the New York Rangers, with the acquisition of Rick Nash and making it to the Eastern Conference finals, have heightened expectations.

...The Rangers are coming off a season in which they finished first in the East and made the conference finals, so anything short of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final likely will be regarded as a failure. To say Nash will have big expectations on his shoulders would be putting it mildly....

I'd have to agree with Kreiser. The Rangers came out of nowhere to make it to within two games of the SCF and, in this offseason, have added Rick Nash into the fold and kept their core of great talent. While some of the teams in the East have weakened (Flyers, Devils), New York has improved. It's going to be a Cup or bust mentality next season.

Give a follow on Twitter @TheWrage or Facebook. E-mail me with any questions or comments at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

10 comments

Newest | Oldest

deryasahin23

@TheNYRBlog @thewrage there's not going to be a season so it's all for naught.. Hope I'm wrong though!!

chrisD

came out of nowhere? can't get behind that statement but i would say that anything but a trip to the finals would be a dissapointment for me. setting the bar lower - anything short of a lock out would make me very happy!

TheWrage

@chrisD No one expected the Rangers to have the season they did last year. At the very best, the sixth seed was the realistic goal. Instead, they exceeded all that by finishing No. 1 and lost in Game 6 of the ECF. To me, that's coming out of nowhere.

gravey94

Unless a team is terrible or in re-building mode, isn't a championship the ONLY measure of success? Anything short of that has to be regarded as a failure, which is fine. In order to know what success is, you have to fail. Hell, last year they were expected to miss the playoffs and even though they nearly made the finals, can anyone really say they were satisfied with the season?

TheWrage

@gravey94 No one should be "satisfied" with last season. Great to come out of nowhere, but now this team has shown it can compete. Time to take it to the next level.

cb1

1 Like

@TheWrage @gravey94 I think as players, they shouldn't be satisfied with anything but the cup. But as a fan, I was very happy with the team last year. Yeah we didn't win the cup, but I think winning the conference and making it to the conference finals with an overachieving team constitute a successful season from my perspective.