Rangers get reality check in humbling loss to defending champion Panthers

This game was a reminder for the Rangers.

A reminder that the next best team could always be waiting around the corner with the ability to smack them back down to earth, no matter how authoritative they may look at that moment in time.

The Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions and the club that knocked them out of the playoffs last season in the conference final, were that team Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, where the visitors handed the Blueshirts their first regulation loss of the season, 3-1.

Just like Florida ripped through the Rangers — after they were flying high with only two postseason losses — in that third-round playoff series, the Panthers tore through them again in their first meeting of the 2024-25 campaign after the Ranges largely demolished each of their previous five opponents.

“I didn’t like the whole night,” head coach Peter Laviolette said bluntly. “I didn’t like any of it. Everything tonight goes into a bag where it wasn’t good enough. You can talk about the five-on-five play, you can talk about the defense, the offense, the power play, the penalty kill.

“I wouldn’t say that that’s who we’ve shown to be so far in the season, but that’s what happened tonight.”