On Tuesday, the Rangers held their final day of the season in Tarrytown. Breakup day is always harder after getting eliminated from the playoffs.

Given the special season they had, it isn’t easy to stand at their lockers and answer questions from the media. These close-knit Blueshirts came close to their goal. Unfortunately, they ran out of gas against the Panthers in a closely fought six-game series. It’ll be another tough summer ahead after not winning the Stanley Cup.

As is customary, some key players revealed the injuries they played with during the run to the Conference Finals. Rangers captain Jacob Trouba admitted that he suffered a broken ankle during March, which led to him missing 11 games. He told reporters that a kidney-sized bean chunk came off.

“It’s not an excuse or anything by any means, I was ready to play,” Trouba said after clearly struggling against the Panthers. “It was an interesting one to play with. It was different than other injuries I’ve come back from in the past.”

When he returned, Trouba initially played with regular partner K’Andre Miller. However, his struggles resulted in coach Peter Laviolette having him play with Erik Gustafsson on the third pair. Outside of being reunited with Miller at the conclusion of the second round and part of the Eastern Conference Final, he played with Gustafsson.

Trouba and Gustafsson were both responsible for Sam Bennett’s goal in Game 6. As easy as it is to pin that loss on the captain, the Rangers were shut out by Sergei Bobrovsky until Artemi Panarin scored with 1:40 left in regulation.

The offense failed to deliver in the last two games. In Game 5, the Rangers were held in check by the stingy Panthers’ checking. A missed opportunity on a power play proved costly in a tie game in the third period. Eventually, Anton Lundell scored in transition by using Braden Schneider as a screen to beat Igor Shesterkin with 9:38 left.

It wasn’t until after Bennett scored an empty netter that Alexis Lafreniere banked in a Mika Zibanejad shot pass to make it 3-2 with 50 seconds remaining. An icing on the next faceoff finished them off.

Between the failure of the top players to produce at 5-on-5 and the power play unable to provide any consistency, it was the offense that let down the Rangers.

The glaring mistakes of Trouba, Gustafsson, Schneider, Miller, Ryan Lindgren, and Adam Fox were magnified due to the lack of goal scoring.

It was never more evident than when Zibanejad forced a pass to Blake Wheeler in the first minute of overtime in Game 4. That turnover forced Wheeler to hook Aleksander Barkov from behind, leading to Sam Reinhart’s power-play goal in sudden death. That proved to be the turning point of the series.

Even a brilliant shorthanded goal from Chris Kreider couldn’t ignite the Blueshirts to a win in Game 5. A splendid play started by Kreider led to Zibanejad pushing the puck up for Kreider to move in and fake out Bobrovsky for a sweet backhand finish to give them a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

Gustafsson negated a 5-on-3 when he went after Niko Mikkola for bumping into Shesterkin. They still let a 5-on-4 advantage slip. Eventually, a turnover allowed the Panthers to quickly transition and get the tying goal from Gustav Forsling.

Aside from Trouba playing hurt, Adam Fox confirmed that he reinjured his knee during the first round. It occurred when he took a knee on knee hit from Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen in Game 4. Fox was never the same. His skating suffered. The injury limited his offense and affected him defensively.

“It was a little bit of a tough situation,” he said. “When you’re on the ice, whether you’re 100 percent, 70 percent, 50 percent, you’re not going to make the excuse of, ‘Oh I didn’t play up to the standard because of this and that.’ I think everyone’s always a little banged up this time of year.”

Despite his struggles, he still had a mesmerizing setup for a Lafreniere tying goal in the third period of Game 4. He spun around and sent a backhand pass for Lafreniere to tip in. It was a remarkable play.

Fox looked to be getting better in Game 6. He was much more involved. However, the Rangers found it difficult to get inside on the Panthers. He finished the postseason with eight assists. Half came in the Eastern Conference Final.

Lindgren cracked a rib in Game 6 against the Hurricanes. He used the off days to recover. It was business as usual for the Rangers’ ultimate warrior. Number 55 has a lot in common with a former No. 5. Dan Girardi always played bruised and battered. Lindgren is cut out of the same mold.

Jimmy Vesey confirmed the obvious. The big hit he took from Ryan Lomberg in Game 2 was a separated shoulder. Encouraging is that he doesn’t need surgery. He’ll begin rehabbing it this summer.

“It was tough to miss the last bit of the year,” Vesey said. “Obviously, as a team we start in September and it’s a long regular season and a long journey to get to the playoffs. It was brutal to not be out there with my teammates. … Everything’s fine, it’s going to recover, but unfortunately I just needed some more time to get back into a game.

“When you’re up 2-1 in the series, everything’s like, ‘Take your time.’ And then it flips and you’re facing elimination. As a player you want to be out there. I wanted to try. I was willing to do whatever I had to do to try to play, but trainers and coaches decided that it probably wasn’t worth the risk of me further injuring it.”

Of course, there was criticism from displeased fans on social media. They couldn’t understand why Trouba played if he wasn’t that effective. Calling a player ‘selfish’ for playing through an injury is misguided. Especially when it’s a team leader.

Was it selfish when he sacrificed his body to block shots? It wasn’t a good postseason for Trouba. He took way too many penalties and was culpable on some goals against. Maybe Laviolette and his teammates value him a lot more than any fan who follows the team.

It isn’t easy to play significant minutes. Could they have put Zac Jones in for Trouba? Probably. But would you have trusted Gustafsson with Jones? If there was a move to be made, it was inserting Jones for Gustafsson, who was ineffective against the Panthers. How many pucks did he throw away to avoid contact?

With Fox’s mobility hindered, Jones’ speed could’ve come in handy. Especially with a blue line that wasn’t too fast. There wasn’t enough offense from the defense. Fox led all Rangers’ defesemen with eight points (assists). Trouba was second with seven points (1-6-7). Both he and Miller scored the only goals while shorthanded. Gustafsson had three assists, and Schneider had two assists.

If Laviolette had made the move for Jones, how much would he have helped? Were the Rangers a seventh defenseman away from beating the Panthers? Realistically, the answer is no.

Of the 13 forwards that played, only three had good series. Lafreniere led the Rangers with four goals. Vincent Trocheck paced them with six points (2-4-6). Barclay Goodrow scored three goals, including an overtime winner in Game 2. Panarin finished with a goal and three assists for four points. But he was limited by the Panthers, who took away time and space. Neither Zibanejad nor Kreider recorded a point at 5-on-5.

Shesterkin posted a 2.25 goals-against-average (GAA) and .930 save percentage in a losing effort. He was brilliant. Even with facing more high danger chances, he stood tall to give the Rangers a chance to win.

In 2015, the Rangers lost an eerie Eastern Conference Final to the Lightning in seven games. There was no such thing as momentum.

After getting shut out 2-0 in Game 5, the Rangers went into Tampa and beat the Lightning 7-3 in Game 6. Derick Brassard posted a hat trick and five points in the win. Then came Game 7.

After failing on two power plays in the second period, the Rangers fell flat in the third. Alex Killorn beat Henrik Lundqvist less than two minutes in. Ondrej Palat added some insurance as the Lightning shut out the Rangers 2-0 to take the series.

The Lightning won the last three games at Madison Square Garden. The road team won five of the seven.

Following the series elimination, it was revealed that five defensemen played with injuries. Similar to Trouba, who was blasted, Girardi and Marc Staal were the whipping boys for losses by fools. Ryan McDonagh played with a broken foot.

Unlike the reaction yesterday, they were called warriors. Most people realized that it was the offense that failed to deliver in Games 5 and 7. A lack of adjustments on home ice didn’t help. It was a missed opportunity.

If they had Mats Zuccarello, they likely advance to a second straight Stanley Cup Final. He was skating. We’ll never know what would’ve happened.

Unlike that series, the Rangers were beat by a better team. By going after the organization, it comes off as sour grapes. Every team that makes it this far has players playing banged up. It’s what separates hockey from the other major sports. They should be lauded and applauded.

It doesn’t give enough credit to the Panthers, whose best players were superior to the Rangers. They executed better at 5-on-5, on special teams, and defensively. That’s why they’re playing for the Cup.

More class should be shown by our fans. It was a great season. Let’s try to appreciate what they accomplished.