from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

If you want to rate degree of demoralizing defeats, be my guest. If you believe that Thursday’s 4-3 loss to the Islanders at the Garden in which the Nomads got the winner with 1:26 remaining in the third period on their only shot of the final 20 minutes — while the Rangers poured 17 on Robin Lehner — leaves more scars than the four defeats preceding it, in which the Blueshirts were outscored 22-5, well, OK.

But while this five-game skid is discouraging, it has also served a constructive purpose in exposing the Rangers’ personnel once and for all as not fast enough, skilled enough or deep enough to compete on even footing with credible playoff contenders. For this high-speed crash six weeks after the slide began at Thanksgiving also should be liberating for the organization....

Now, with the fewest non-shootout victories (12) in the NHL accurately representing the Rangers’ spot on the league ladder, general manager Jeff Gorton and his staff are freed to retrain their focus exclusively on what was the season’s original intent, anyway.

That, lest anyone forget, was development.

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