These Rangers are missing an all-important magic trait from last season

By the time the 2024 playoffs began, the Rangers had already constructed their reputation — their 114-point, Presidents’ Trophy-winning one — around what happened when they weren’t winning games, and it didn’t take long for that to appear in the playoffs.

They snatched Game 2 of the second round from the Hurricanes after trailing by a goal in the third.

They did the same in Game 3 after trailing by one after 20 minutes.

And then in Game 6, behind by two and staring down the potential for a do-or-die finale, Chris Kreider erupted for a third-period hat trick to propel the comeback that ended the series.

The Blueshirts kept finding ways to add cardiac and resilient and never-say-die as labels that could get attached to the front of their name, with the 28 comeback wins in 2023-24 after trailing by a goal setting a team record.

On 14 occasions, they erased a deficit of at least one goal in the third period and escaped with a win, and six times, they erased a deficit when trailing by two goals at any point in the game.