Despite having a 12-6-1 record so far this season, this New York Rangers team has been playing some of its worst hockey over the past couple of weeks and has shown no signs of getting any better. They have consistently been outshot, outworked and outplayed by the majority of the teams they have faced this season. They are 1-6 against teams in a playoff position and these main issues that have plagued this team for years now stem from the top players not being able to adjust and fix these mistakes despite playing together for so many years.
This core group of players have been together for a long time now and has only failed when the moments get bigger and the lights get brighter. The problems have been apparent for years now and general manager Chris Drury has decided to keep this team together and not make any major changes. Well, with some recent news that has emerged, it seems like those major changes will be coming sooner rather than later and maybe it will finally be the wake-up call this team has been looking for.
Three Straight Playoff Defeats With No Changes in Mindset
After missing the playoffs for four straight seasons, the Rangers have made the postseason each of the last three seasons to varying degrees of success. In the 2021-22 season, they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final and pushed the series to six games before being beaten by the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was seen as an underdog run from a Rangers team that was just heading out of a rebuild and this was a great first step in the right direction.
However, they did have a 2-0 series lead over the Lightning and proceeded to lose four straight after taking their foot off the gas. The players talked about it as a learning experience for them and they would build off of it going into the playoffs next season. However, it only got worse the following season.
The 2022-23 season saw the Rangers make big additions in Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko prior to the trade deadline and they were set to face the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs. They dominated the Devils for the first two games and had the 2-0 series lead, but once again, they took their foot off the gas and lost in seven games. The players once again talked about how they would learn from it, but it doesn’t seem like they did.
Last season, they made it back to the Eastern Conference Final and had a 2-1 series lead over the Florida Panthers before losing three straight and being dominated all series long by a better team. Three straight seasons in which they had series leads over their opponents only for them to blow it each time. It doesn’t seem like this team learned anything and it has continued to bleed into this season.
Chris Drury Has Trusted This Core for Far Too Long
With all of these playoff failures and series leads going up in smoke, you would think that Drury would have made some changes to the core of this team because it seems obvious that they aren’t good enough to get the job done when it matters most. However, year after year, he has kept his faith in these same players and it ends up the same, with no Stanley Cup. While it would be difficult to move some of these players, it needed to happen a while ago and it continues to hurt the team to this day. Trading away guys like Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad would be the hardest to do since they both have full no-movement clauses (NMCs) in their contracts and they would have to agree to be moved, but other players can be moved that don’t have full trade protections any more.
Related: Rangers Reportedly Open for Business With Trouba, Kreider Available
The big name rumored to be on the move this past offseason was captain Jacob Trouba. His NMC got bumped down to a 15-team no-trade clause going into this season so it became a lot easier to make a trade with him involved. It seemed as if the trade was going to happen, but then Trouba seemingly blocked potential trades by putting the teams that were interested in him on his list. So Drury had no choice but to keep him and run back this same group of players once again and as it turns out, it was a mistake because they are once again not playing up to the level that they should be and now, it seems as if big changes could be coming.
Rangers Are Ready to Make Some Big Moves
In a bit of shocking news, it was reported by Elliotte Friedman on Monday (Nov. 25) that Drury, following the Rangers’ back-to-back embarrassing losses to end their road trip, told the other 31 general managers that he was open for business and was willing to make some big moves to shake up the core of this team. The two players that Friedman mentioned were Trouba and Chris Kreider. Trouba is not surprising given the offseason rumors, but seeing Kreider, who has been with the team for 14 seasons now and is their best playoff performer and near the top of many franchise lists, is very surprising, but it is also warranted. He has played very poorly this season and given his playoff track record and goal scoring ability, he would bring a big package back to the team if he were to be moved.
While it isn’t a guarantee that either of these players will be moved or any player at all and that this could just be Drury using the media to try and wake his team up, he should actually be looking to move some of these core players because we have seen enough from this group to know that they aren’t good enough. These players have been complacent for too long thinking that their actions won’t have consequences. Now, every player on this team should be getting the message that they are not safe, and maybe this will be the turning point for the Rangers this season.
