Last spring’s ultimate defeat, coming on top of a quite similar one 24 months earlier, should have proved once and for all that the Rangers’ skill game, impressive at it at may be in spurts, does not overcome their physicality deficiency at the final-four level. 

Instead of learning from the defeat to the Panthers two years after the defeat to the Lightning, the Rangers apparently have chosen to take the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” treatment. 

Head coach Peter Laviolette, as well. 

But not only have they erased the pounding from their memory, they have somehow become less physical than ever over the first 18 games through which their 12-5-1 record is owed to superior goaltending and a superior team sense of how to close out games.