Two days after the club definitely missed this year's Stanley Cup game and three games before the season is over for the club's part, first Davidson and Gorton had to leave their posts, and then the players threw their gloves on the ice against Washington.
The match had received an extra spark after Rangers accused Washington star Tom Wilson of "scary acts of violence" against Rangers duo Pavel Butjnevich and Artemij Panarin on Monday, for which Wilson escaped with a fine.
"Lying on my shoulders"
Rangers lost that match 3-6 and were also in theory eliminated from the playoffs.
When the teams met again during the night towards Thursday - in Rangers' last home game of the season - it was a new victory for Washington, now with 4-2.
But again, it was other than hockey that was in focus.
Immediately on the drop, three separate fights broke out on the ice and the match was called off after one second.
By the time the match clock had barely passed four minutes, the referees had already ruled out a 72-minute suspension, and Tom Wilson was once again at the center of events.
- I had nothing to say to anyone else.
I thought his case should have been taken care of before the match but that did not happen.
Then I felt that it was on my shoulders and I took that responsibility, says Rangers Brendan Smith, who hit Wilson after 50 seconds, the fourth fight so far in the match.
"Necessary" change of leadership
The patience for the Rangers' missing victories on the ice in recent years had at the start of the match reached the end of the road at the owner level and the CEO John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton had to leave the club.
"We want to thank 'JD' and Jef for their efforts for the club," Rangers owner James Dolan wrote in a statement, continuing the praise:
"For the team to succeed as our fans deserve, a change of leadership is necessary."
CLIP: Loss for Rangers - miss playoffs (May 4)
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Loss for Rangers - miss playoffs Photo: BIldbyrån