I will not draw a straight line between the absence of a captain and the Dust-Up in the Tunnel between Tony DeAngelo and Alex Georgiev after the defeat in the Saturday night overtime for the Penguins that shook the franchise world and everything, but certainly signaled the end of the No. 77 season on Broadway.
Mark Messier, Vic Hadfield, Barry Beck, Ron Greschner and Ryan Callahan could all be wearing the sweater and the “C” on Saturday and they would not have been able to prevent the spontaneous combustion that occurred.
But I believe that the Rangers, who seem to be dealing with all kinds of problems as they struggle to find balance from the start and regain the positive vibes of 2019-20 that seemingly left the Toronto bubble behind, need a captain. I think they need an identifiable leader among the leadership group.
And right now, there is no better man for the job than Chris Kreider, who in his 10th year in the organization has emerged as the voice of the team.
Ahead of the season, the hierarchy that includes President John Davidson, General Manager Jeff Gorton, Head Coach David Quinn and GM Assistant Chris Drury, concluded that the team would benefit from four alternates instead of a captain. This implied that the group did not believe that Kreider or the supposed leader candidate Mika Zibanejad was suitable.
With that in mind, a few weeks ago, I suggested that Jacob Trouba would be a logical candidate to fill the role starting next season. This happened after the defender was praised by Quinn for his work in the room after the 4-0 defeat on the opening night for the Islanders.
That was just over two weeks ago, even though it seems like a decade has passed since then. The Good Ship Ranger has been leaking one after another and is in danger of becoming the SS Minnow. Of course, the coach will be responsible for the ship’s destination. But a strong and distinct first mate will also be needed.
And that would be Kreider, who has blue blood running through his veins since he joined the Rangers at the start of the 2012 playoffs, just a few days from the BC Chestnut Hill campus.
There may be management concerns – certainly there were during the formation years of No. 20 – that Kreider would internalize too much, worry too much and that the captaincy would become a burden for him.
But the growth in Kreider’s stature has been steady, even though the consistency on the ice remains undefined. On Saturday, visibly upset (and now we know why there was reason to be, in addition to the result) in Zoom’s call with the media, Kreider called the team on for its poor performance in letting out another third period advantage.
It wasn’t Kreider in his closet talking quietly to an individual journalist to get the message out. It was Kreider using his platform to tell his teammates that he was not good enough. And, knowing Kreider, it is almost certain that he sent this message directly before exploding it in cyberspace, where it will remain for eternity or until the cloud is full.
It is one thing to have four alternates in Zibanejad, Kreider, Trouba and Artemi Panarin, but if there is a captain, he will become solely responsible for setting the standard. He becomes the player responsible for facing teammates if the effort is not good enough.
All sorts of wild stories have circulated on the Internet in the past two days about DeAngelo and his supposedly ill relationship with K’Andre Miller. Many individuals have told us that there is nothing in them and, instead, inventions suited to a narrative.
The Rangers must vigorously refute these stories during a news conference ahead of Monday’s Garden rematch against the Penguins. Professional sports teams generally tend to circulate the wagons in cases like these, but it would be up to Davidson and the hierarchy to provide as much transparency as possible here, in order to neutralize stories that have started to gain popularity.
(In addition, stories circulate that Kreider punched DeAngelo in the face after the initial mess was undone by Miller, as the Post reported Monday morning. This is simply not true, according to several knowledgeable individuals. the situation.)
A young team with a young coach in the NHL is experiencing a crisis of confidence. The goal has been unstable. The structure was transitory. Now that, leading to the forced exit of one of last season’s most important assets.
Rangers need a leader. They need a captain.
Calling Kid K.
Calling Chris Kreider.