It's time the players take blame for the Rangers' failure
Rangers center Tyler Motte, Jimmy Vesey, K'Andre Miller, Jacob Trouba and Igor Shesterkin react during a break in play against the Devils during the third period in Game 7 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday in Newark, N.J. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
So, to review the past two decades of Rangers coaches . . .
Let’s see. There was gentlemanly Tom Renney, then fiery John Tortorella, then laid-back Alain Vigneault, then intense David Quinn, then, most recently, an old-school, plain-speaking “players’ coach” named Gerard Gallant.
Gallant, as we learned during Saturday’s Knicks playoff game — a PR timing all-timer — mutually parted ways with the Rangers. (No one is “fired” anymore.)
He leaves with a stellar 99-46-19 regular-season record and a 2022 playoff run that brought the Rangers within two victories of a Stanley Cup Final.
Was getting rid of Gallant — last heard scolding journalists for daring to suggest his job might be unsafe — the right thing to do?
Beats me. Check in this time next year for a proper answer.
Here is the more immediate question: At what point are the players the issue?
Yes, we know that teams forever have looked to coaches and managers when a change is needed, because you cannot fire all your players. But the forechecking-light dud the Rangers produced in the final five games of their first-round series against the younger, more energetic Devils is on the guys wearing skates as much as the ones wearing suits.
Gallant publicly called out his top players for their failings. Not by name, but we got the general idea. What the players must do moving forward is call out themselves, and their teammates, if this group is to challenge for a Cup in the next couple of years.
(The clock is always ticking. Readers older than age 90 or so can remember the Rangers winning more than one Cup. The rest of us . . . no.)
The Islanders’ veteran core appears past its best-by date, but the Rangers’ big names should have another couple of runs left in them, in theory.
Still, their top five scorers this regular season were Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider.
When the team reports for training camp, only Fox will be younger than 30.
General manager Chris Drury told reporters on Saturday that in exit meetings, players accepted their roles in the poor finish and were “taking a long, hard look in the mirror.”
That’s good. The first step in fixing a problem is recognizing it.
But making it happen is the challenge, especially in a long grind of a season during which the ultimate judgment must await spring.
Where will Drury go next to unlock the successful coaching formula for a team that, given its fame and fortune and no-move clauses, is difficult to coach?
Scotty Bowman is available. Hmm. Mike Keenan? Glen Sather? Bill Belichick?
Heck, maybe just let Jacob Trouba be a player/coach and hope he can reach his teammates with some motivational speaking and hard mid-ice checks.
Nothing else worked against the Devils, who were using a rookie goalie.
This hockey-coach-carousel culture is weird.
During the Islanders’ second consecutive run to the semifinals — in Barry Trotz’s third season with the team — a fellow hockey writer told me Trotz would be gone after his fourth season.
Why? How? “It’s hockey,” he said. Sure enough, Trotz was through after Year Four.
It’s a strange way to do business.
Now, as the Rangers look for their next coach, they will give the personality wheel another big spin.
Who knows where it will land? But no matter where it does, the arrow entering 2023-24 should be pointing where it belongs: at the players.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
