TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — A year ago, the New York Rangers were starting a playoff run to the Eastern Conference final and did not clean out their lockers until June, after losing to eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida.
It was far different this time around, when players met with reporters Monday in the aftermath of missing the playoffs and coach Peter Laviolette getting fired over the weekend.
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New York Rangers' Chris Kreider reacts to the crowd after an NHL hockey game Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The New York Rangers look up to the broadcast booth as they honor Sam Rosen after an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. Rosen is retiring after 40 seasons working with the Rangers. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, top, watches during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Rangers' Mika Zibanejad waves at someone in the crowd after an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
After a season that included trading away captain Jacob Trouba and others who played important roles in previous years, there weren’t many concrete explanations for the team’s drop to 39 wins and 85 points, including a midseason 4-15-0 swoon that essentially cost them a chance of getting in as a wild card.
Franchise goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who had the worst season of his six-year NHL career, losing 34 of his 61 starts with a 2.86 goals-against average and .905 save percentage, feels like he and his teammates never established the same rhythm they did in 2023-24.
“In my mind, something broke during the season and went the other way. We couldn’t handle it,” said Shesterkin, who next season is starting an eight-year, $92 million contract that makes him the highest-paid goalie in league history. “Probably not too much confidence.”
Shesterkin was far from the only problem. No. 1 center Mika Zibanejad and defensemen Adam Fox and K'Andre Miller struggled, Laviolette paid the price and the Rangers will soon have their fourth coach since 2021.
“We had long stretches of games in which we didn’t perform well," said Fox, whose 61 points were his fewest since the pandemic-shortened 2021 season. “If we did our job, the coach would still be here.”
Zibanejad's production also dipped to 20 goals and 42 assists for 62 points, also his fewest since '21.
“Overall, I just think we just didn’t get to the level of play we needed to get to," said Zibanejad, who has five years left on his contract with an annual salary cap hit of $8.5 million. "There was a lot of I would say ‘noise’ around our team this year. I’m not saying that it is the cause of it. We didn’t have the calmness we had the year before.”
Veteran Chris Kreider said he grappled with back issues, a bout of vertigo and a hand injury, but the 33-year-old forward who has spent his entire career with New York expressed eagerness to return next season.
“This is home for me. This is the organization that gave me an opportunity to live out my dream," said Kreider, a first-round draft pick by the Rangers in 2009 who has two years left on his contract. “I’ve developed so many relationships and spent so much time in this area. Obviously, this is where I want to be. This is the group — in whatever fashion — I want to help win hockey games.”
Kreider also alluded to off-ice situations that made it a tumultuous last 10 months around the organization. Gritty forward Barclay Goodrow was put on waivers last summer and claimed by rebuilding San Jose, and after drawn-out public drama, Trouba was traded to Anaheim in December.
“It’s part of professional sports, but, obviously, at a certain point it becomes somewhat of a distraction," Kreider said. “Two guys that were massive leaders for us and a big part of our room … it was certainly challenging.”
The Rangers' vaunted power play that ranked third in the league in '23-24 plummeted to 28th of 32 teams this past season, which leading scorer Artemi Panarin blamed for missing the playoffs despite the same core in place.
“This year was hard," Panarin said. “If our power play worked better, we make the playoffs.”
NOTE: Defenseman Braden Schneider had a sling on his right arm and said he had surgery to repair a torn labrum in that shoulder. Schneider said he expects to be fully healthy for training camp.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
New York Rangers' Chris Kreider reacts to the crowd after an NHL hockey game Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
The New York Rangers look up to the broadcast booth as they honor Sam Rosen after an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. Rosen is retiring after 40 seasons working with the Rangers. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, top, watches during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New York Rangers' Mika Zibanejad waves at someone in the crowd after an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.
The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Barrow reported from Atlanta.
People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
