When it comes to mourning loss, there are five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The New York Rangers as a franchise are currently in the bargaining stage in terms of institutional approach. The team went through denial and anger during the course of this past season. The team denied they needed to rebuild when it allowed Alain Vigneault to run Henrik Lundqvist into the ground in hopes of saving his job.
The players on the ice conveyed the anger in the grieving process. Watching Lundqvist get pulled this past season more than he had ever before in his entire career was extremely demoralizing to a team that expected to be a Stanley Cup contender.