Rangers demise started at the top

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY SportsThere was a time when small progress was good enough.

There was a time when going from a first round exit to a second round one was considered a success. There was a time when Henrik Lundqvist wasn't getting older, when change actually happened, when the organization seemed poised for imminent greatness, and when there was anticipation for an offseason to fix what needed fixing in order to move on.

Those days are long gone.

The New York Rangers lay dead in a grave dug by their own hand. Each mistake the team made sunk the shovel into the earth. The mistakes we saw three years ago, two years ago, and this year ... all of them blend together today.

That this has…