MTPS: The Long Road to Nowhere
A poor record, significant injuries, and lackluster play have the 2025-26 Rangers headed nowhere. But will rock bottom propel them up, or will they break out their shovels and continue to make the hole deeper?
In the Great Smokey Mountains just outside of Bryson City, N.C., there's Fontana Lake, a man-made lake created in the 1940's to supply hydroelectric power for defense industries during World War II. In making the lake, the government flooded several roads in the region, thus isolating small towns from one another. The government promised to rectify the situation by constructing a new highway called Lakeview Drive, that would replace the routes that had been disrupted and reconnect the towns in and around Swain County.
Due to costs and other issues, the road was never finished. It just leads into a long, dark tunnel with no exit. It has become a tourist destination in the region—a symbol to broken promises, misguided plans, and poor judgement. While it is still officially called Lakeview Drive, locals in the region refer to it simply as the "Road to Nowhere."
If that doesn't sound like the perfect metaphor (look it up) for the 2025-26 New York Rangers, I don't know what does.
Well-intentioned plans that had some obvious flaws that the people in charge were willing to overlook, only to see everything come to a crashing halt. I wouldn't even blame you if you looked at this season, and the thirty before it, and said, "Just like the Road to Nowhere, I can't even count on a light at the end of the tunnel."
Friends (and others): I'm here to tell you there is a light. You just have to be willing to squint to see it.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I was wrong. I was wrong when I said that this team was going to win the Metro and go (at least) to the Eastern Conference Final. There's nothing wrong with being wrong as long as you're willing to change your opinion when confronted with new information, and the new information I was confronted with is this: the injuries (J.T. Miller, Adam Fox, and now Igor Shesterkin), limited depth, and regression of some key players (Alexis Lafrenière), has been too much for stronger coaching, a rejuvenated Mika Zibanejad, and the consistently incredible Igor Shesterkin (when healthy) to overcome. This team is not going anywhere except hopefully to the lottery.
But—and this but is so big I could have written Kardashian—there is hope.
