I can assure you that Rangers do not believe that their problem is behind the bench with the head coach. No one in the team hierarchy wants to point the finger at David Quinn. Nobody wants to have to make a change of coach.
But games like this, in which the Blueshirts suffered a total drop in the ice of the Garden by losing 5-2 to a team of Devils who had not played since January 31 and had only one practice to prepare for … Well, games like this can force club president John Davidson to ask some pointed questions about what the hell is going on here?
Wow, wow, wow. It was so smelly.
After a match in which the Devils dominated the first and third periods, and scored three goals in the final 20 minutes to open a 2-2 dispute, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider – two of the biggest culprits of the Fuga 4-7 team- 3 – without reduced words.
“We were without a bit of desperation to be honest with you,” said Zibanejad, last year’s 41-goal scorer, who is stuck in one for 11 straight games. “Throughout the game, we didn’t get to the level we needed.
“We have to find a way to do that.”
The Rangers were in the lead or tied for two periods in 11 of the 14 competitions. However, they won only four times. It is not enough to suggest that Zibanejad’s poor start or that Kreider’s negligible impact most of the way are the main causes of what afflicts the team, although few clubs can overcome the lack of productivity of their biggest cannons.
No, there’s more. Rangers, who won 18 out of 26 immediately after Igor Shesterkin’s promotion to Broadway last January, forgot how to win. It is more than having the next to the worst five to five NHL pitches. Or maybe there is less there than meets the eye.
Quinn, who seemed dejected during the post-game conversation about Zoom with the media, as he did during the two years of his tenure, was asked if it was an effort.
“Uh, yeah,” he said, looking as defeated as his team.
When a team loses because of the effort, does at least part of it have to recover from the coach? I’ll answer: Uh, yes.
All the improvements in the defensive zone – well, not in the last 20 minutes that the Blueshirts passed without the injured Jacob Trouba – don’t seem to amount to a lot of beans compared to the problems that this club seems to be facing.
“For most of the game, they beat us, they beat us on skateboard, they beat us in training, they won most battles,” said Kreider. “I mean, chances aside, we moved away from the things we were doing well.”
This, then, is Kid K’s quote: “They wanted more. It is unacceptable. “
The Rangers were not undone in this game by power. They didn’t take a man advantage for the first time this year. They dominated much of the second period in which the trio Ryan Strome-Kaapo Kakko-Alexis Lafreniere owned the record below the hash marks, but did not commit a single fault.
Hey, you know what? Kreider drew no penalty this season, but took six, including a delay in the first period. And Zibanejad drew exactly one when he took five, including an elbow in the second period he played for which he was in the area for Pavel Zacha’s powerful game goal.
Again, however, these are the individual trees through which the forest may not be visible. The only reason Rangers were tied in the second game was because Shesterkin was out in 2019-20 in the first 20 minutes. OK, Artemi Panarin was sidelined for the second game in a row, but that doesn’t even come close to explaining the club’s illnesses.
“A lot of things that happened tonight, you wonder why,” said Quinn, whose job is not to imagine, but to provide solutions. “For me, we are in a situation where we don’t earn much, you know. We need to understand the difference between winning and losing and what you need to do. “
Quinn is called all the time on social media for his failure to develop children. This is a malarkey ball. Kakko – perhaps the club’s best in this game, and that doesn’t mean a small compliment – has taken dramatic steps in the past two weeks. Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren and K’Andre Miller speak for themselves. Pavel Buchnevich, adjusted by the coach before the game, responded. His game improved by leaps and bounds playing for Quinn. Lafreniere? No, I do not think the coach is responsible for leaving a goal and a point from No. 1.
But a game like this … well, when the bus goes off course, everyone looks at the driver. Rangers don’t want to look at the coach, but it can be easier said than done.