from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

There was no hip-hip-hooray for the Rangers or for Patrick Kane, who reported to New York with the specific lower-body issues that have plagued him for the last two years and were just too much to overcome.

Eyes wide open, the Rangers traded for him, anyway. Eyes wide open, No. 88 accepted and embraced the opportunity, anyway.

But in the end, No. 88 was the cherry on top that fell off the sundae before it could be savored.

“We’re going to have to find a way to get me back to as close to 100 percent as possible because I look back at that series and I know if I felt a little better I can help us win it,” Kane said on Wednesday’s breakup day at the training facility. “So it’s almost disappointing and depressing in a way but that’s kind of how I feel about it.”

Kane recorded six points (1-5) in the seven-game defeat to the Devils, third on the club. He scored his goal in the third period of Game 2 through which he appeared as explosive as ever. He was perhaps the best Ranger other than Igor Shesterkin over the final 40 minutes of Game 7, desperately trying to make it happen.

But it did not. And it did not for most of the series in which Kane did not at all resemble the dynamic game-changing forward who rates at the tippy top of the list of the greatest American-born players in NHL history.

“I commend the training staff and [head athletic trainer] Jim Ramsay for getting me where I felt as good as I possibly could so when the game started I could just think about hockey and playing,” Kane said. “But before, it’s just a lot of maintenance and thinking about how you’re going to get yourself to feel the best as possible to play.

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