The New York Rangers limped into the break with a 7-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild at MSG. For a box score, click here.
I guess the Rangers decided that three days wasn’t a long enough holiday break so they left for the holidays on Monday. There really is no other explanation for the two games this week.
I don’t want to hear that the team is tired. Every team has the same schedule. Every team is tired. If the players want to play in international tournaments and get full weeks off, this is what is going to happen. Unless the league finally realizes 82 games is too many but I’m not holding my breath on that.
On Tuesday, the Penguins got up to play the Rangers. They had no reason to do that. Sure the Rangers were ahead of them in the standings but they’re the Stanley Cup champs, no one is confusing the two. But they were fired up for that game. And rather than do the same because they were playing the current champs, the Rangers laid an egg. To show how much the Penguins put into that game, they proceeded to get killed two nights later by the Blue Jackets. (Yes Columbus is really good right now but you can tell which game they cared about. It’s a joke the Rangers couldn’t have same motivation.)
Tonight, the Rangers were playing a Wild team that was in Montreal last night. That means they played and traveled through customs while the Rangers sat on their couches. Guess which team looked fresh? It’s embarrassing.
I don’t know what is going on but something has to change. I see a lot of people calling for a new coach. Maybe Vigneault is the problem. But I have a problem pushing out a coach who has a 167-92-23 record in 282 games with the organization, especially when in only 36 of those games did he have close to the roster he wanted. If he lost the room, fine. But there is no sign of that so I don’t understand how firing him will change this. (Personally, I’m still waiting for an explanation on why Skjei was benched tonight. My opinion is any one of the D could have been, including the rookie.)
Honestly, this is on the players. And not just the ones who fans have wanted gone for years. It starts with the entire leadership group, the entire veteran group of this team. If you think Girardi, Lundqvist and Staal are issues well so are McDonagh, Stepan and to an extent Nash and Zuccarello. We know the first three are probably past or close to past their prime. But if the last four can’t force this team to be ready for these games then they are just as at fault as the others. Someone needs to step up and not just say this isn’t good enough but do something about it.
Stepan played like he cared tonight. I heard his, Kreider and Zuccarello’s names all night. Not surprisingly, that line had a part in all four of the Rangers goals. It’s one game but it’s a start. (Well for Zuccarello, it’s been all season but he’s the only one.) Now the rest need to follow. This isn’t just on the coach if the guys in the room can’t hold each other responsible. To me, a performance like tonight is on the players a lot more than it’s on the coach.
The “good news” is the Rangers have more time to rest as we’ve reached the holiday break. Kreider said yesterday “rest is a weapon”. Since they’ve “rested” all week, hopefully they will look like a different team on Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators. Otherwise I think we need to start calling for a change in the room first.
(Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
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