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.
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.
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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)
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy's mother in a brutal hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years in the boy's death and another 20 years consecutively for the attack on Shaheen. The judge also sentenced him to three years imprisonment for hate crimes. The length of the sentence makes it all but certain he will die behind bars.
“No sentence can restore what was taken, but today’s outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice,” said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago. “Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
Czuba did not speak during the sentencing. Czuba's attorney, Lenard, declined comment. Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office issued a statement calling Czuba a “morally reprehensible killer" and the impact of his actions “truly unfathomable.”
The boy's great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the only family member who spoke during the hearing. He said that no matter the sentence length it wouldn't be enough. The boy's parents had plans for him and Czuba robbed them of that, he said.
Yousef asked Czuba to explain why he attacked the boy and his mother, asking him what news he heard that provoked him, but Czuba did not respond, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, prosecutors said during the trial.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors' case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba's wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child's body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee's relatives.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning a verdict.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee's funeral drew large crowds and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover.
She said there were no prior issues in the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a living room. Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen, who testified at trial in English and Arabic though a translator.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Yousef told reporters after the hearing that Czuba was a grandfather figure to Wadee and the family doesn’t understand what “fake news” Czuba may have heard about the war in Gaza that caused him to attack the boy and his mother. People need to understand Muslims before judging them, he said.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We can’t bring the war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country . . . we need that to stop.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of ‘Mahmoud.'
Odai Al Fayoumi, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Will County Prosecutor Christopher Koch exits the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Joseph Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - Wadee Alfayoumi's father, Oday Al Fayoume, seated right, and his uncle Mahmoud Yousef attend a vigil for Wadee at Prairie Activity and Recreation center in Plainfield, Ill., Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Joseph Czuba, 71, stands before Circuit Judge Dave Carlson for his arraignment at the Will County, Ill., courthouse, Oct. 30, 2023, in Joliet, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
