"I'd have thought I'd heard from the Rangers because Eric was their best player for a number of months last year, but that isn't the case," Carl Lindros told The Post by phone last night from his home outside Toronto. "But last year was kind of bizarre. It was dysfunctional."

But that was only a warmup for the elder Lindros, who, until last night, had not been heard from publicly since his son's acquisition from the Flyers on Aug. 20, 2001. "The team should have done better, but it was dysfunctional," he said. "It was like a pee-wee hockey team coached by a father."

The Rangers, of course, were coached by Sather until he stepped down after 62 games on Feb. 25, with a 21-27-7-4 record and the team in the middle of the freefall that would claim nearly all of the roster in the great purge. Eric Lindros wasn't part of the cleansing only because of a shoulder injury he suffered while preparing to return from the concussion he sustained against Washington Jan. 28.

Sather, who, like the younger Lindros, earlier in the day had left open the door for a possible — if unlikely — post-free agency continuation of No. 88's career on Broadway, was unavailable for comment last night.

Eric Lindros, who tomorrow will join dozens of marquee names on the open market, played in 192 games for the Rangers, registering 66 goals and 92 assists for 155 points in the three seasons after being acquired for Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl, Jan Hlavac and a third-rounder.

No. 88 had two dominating stretches for the Blueshirts. The first, through eight winter weeks of 2001, came to an abrupt end when he sustained the seventh recorded concussion of his career on Dec. 28, 2001 in San Jose. The second, this past January, was halted when he was concussed by the Jason Doig hit at 10:53 of the second period of what became a 2-1 loss in what will be his last game as a Ranger. He had 10 goals and 22 assists in 39 games, during which he was bounced from line to line by Sather until settling with Matt Barnaby and Chris Simon.

"Personally, I had some hot flashes(I could say something here,but I won't-Willow) and some real cold ones," Eric Lindros told The Post earlier in the day. "As a team, we were extremely disappointing. Not making the playoffs was a failure.

"But I'm very thankful to have been blessed with the opportunity to have played in New York. It's a great city; a special place. The fans are great, as loyal as you can find.

"When I look back, I wish things could have gone better from a hockey perspective, but I don't regret for one minute my time in New York."

A time that effectively ended last night.