Sadly It’s Time to Blow Up This Rangers Squad, and Fast
After advancing to the third round a year ago, it raised hopes for a deep run this year. Instead, the NY Rangers bowed out in the first round and to make it sting worse, it was to their cross Hudson rivals, the New Jersey Devils. In a crucial game seven, the Rangers just did not show up and were shut out.
In professional sports, when a team annually underperforms, you’ll hear fans and media demand that management “blow up” the squad –get rid of disappointing players and essentially start all over again in the quest to win a championship.
Sad to say, the New York Rangers have now reached that unsatisfying point. The team went backwards this past season. Last year, the Rangers made it to the third round of the Stanley Cup PLayoffs. This season, they got knocked out in round one.
The May 6th firing of Coach Gerard Gallant is the first major change to hit the disappointing Rangers.
This current group of New York Rangers players will never win the Stanley Cup. As it showed recently, when the New Jersey Devils eliminated the Rangers, the squad is too old, too slow, too meek and too predictable.
Therefore, the only solution is to overhaul the roster. Add players who are faster, more combative in the corners and in the goal crease. Keep the core of the team intact and discard the passengers – the players who go along for the ride and don’t make things happen.
Star goalie Igor Shesterkin–the team’s No. 1 asset–is a must to stay. Defensemen Adam Fox, K’Andre Miller and Ryan Lindgren are solid platers (even though the stellar Fox had a horrendous stretch against the Devils). Forwards Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin (who was dreadful in the playoffs) and Filip Chytil (who was also disappointing) should remain, too. The others are expendable, especially the highly disappointing recent top draft choices Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko.
Yes, I know, I know–I’m the same writer who boldly predicted a month ago that the team could win the 2023 Stanley Cup championship. What do I know?
Before the start of the 2023 playoffs, I guess I was hoping against hope that the same group of players–plus a few veterans acquired at the trade deadline–who had disappointed us last year would suddenly rise up and win it all. Wrong again.
But I won’t get fooled again.
What went wrong this spring?
Where to start!
The Rangers were vulnerable in five-on-five situations. When the Rangers skated with a man advantage, on the power play, they could be scary. But at even strength, they looked slow. And in the National Hockey League, lack of speed kills. The players today are uniformly big and muscular and teams no longer need to hire “enforcers” who can protect the stars from other players’ cheap shots.
The Rangers need to put an emphasis on speedy skaters.
Too often, this group of players seemed fixated on making the perfect pass to set up a goal and disdained the practice of randomly shooting pucks at goaltenders in big numbers.
But in the playoffs, teams emphasize body checking and defense and it is not easy to score artful goals. Sometimes, it is better just to shoot pucks at the other goalie and crash the net for deflections and rebounds.
Ranger fans of a certain age will remember when the team’s broadcast analyst, Bill Chadwick, would yell in frustration during games, “Shoot the puck, Barry.” He implored powerful defenseman Barry Beck to shoot slap shots instead of passing the puck. I would tell this whole crop of players, “Shoot the puck, guys!”
The Future
Increasingly, National Hockey League teams are putting a premium on speed. The Rangers must find a way to get faster throughout their roster. Otherwise, the team runs the risk of under-performing year after year.
Of course, it is much easier said than done. We fans can’t snap out fingers are suddenly see a new group of players wearing the blue and white of the Rangers.
Management has the challenge of unearthing the new players. I admit I was ecstatic this past year when the Rangers added future hall of famer Patrick Kane, once a superstar who had won a slew of individual awards and earned three Stanley Cup rings as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. I was similarly thrilled when the team scooped up goal scorer Vladimir Tarasenko from the St. Louis Blues, too.
Tarasenko did his job, but Kane did not score goals at the clip the fan base expected. He did not make a difference. He apparently did not inspire better playoff play out of Panarin, with whom he had teamed in Chicago.
Right now, I concede that I am a bitter fan. I can only see negatives and obstacles. Over the summer, I’ll no doubt get my fan mojo back.
My natural optimism will return. The Rangers’ management will make whatever moves they can–and excitement will grow about the 2023-24 season.
But right now, everything’s come a crapper.