Rangers’ melancholy season finale offers reminder of big changes likely on horizon

By the end of the night on which they were selected as the Rangers’ stars of the game, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad skated off into the offseason having played a sum of 7,231:31 together — plus another 515:44 in the playoffs per Natural StatTrick — since becoming teammates during the summer of 2017.

Chances are the BFFs who have formed a large chunk of the club’s bedrock for more than a half-decade will never get that 7,232nd minute together, at least not while wearing Blueshirts.

The expectation, of course, is that Kreider will be traded this summer, 13 years after he made his debut as a 19-year-old during the 2012 playoffs. The disconnect between the franchise’s all-time, third-leading goal scorer and the franchise itself leaped off the page through much of this infected season

This was a winter of discontent. The spring hasn’t been so much different. Thursday’s 4-0 victory over the Lightning at the Garden in the season finale starts the clock on significant decisions that begin, of course, with Peter Laviolette’s hold on the head coaching position — tenuous at best.