The players performing above expectations this season are as follows.......
Will Cuylle
Victor Mancini
And that is it.
Long gone are the days of heart and soul players on this team. At one point, Lindgren used to be. Those days are over.
The rest are too mercurial and sensitive to deal with any adversity. The result is always to coast and get a coach fired. This still may happen but the core is rotten and needs to be broken at all levels.
When we had the letter, we had to deal with losing players who, despite their contracts being too rich for declining players, would do anything to win. Look at those teams in the early and mid 2010s. People used to crap on Rick Nash......hell he'd be the hardest working player not named Cuylle or Berard on this team.
Kreider has to go. He had a nice run of being a legit 1st line player, clutch playoff performer, but to me he will always be remembered for taking so many nights off during his first 8-9 years here.
I don't think I've ever witnessed a rapid decline like ZBad as a Ranger and I go back to 88-89. A few years ago he had 41 goals in 57 games. Now he plays like he is on one of the 97-98 to 03-04 teams. The talent is there. The drive is not.
At this point I'd be taking offers on anyone not named Cuylle. We are back to being a team of aging players collecting large paychecks with NMC and NTC securities.
Zero leadership. And it starts with a GM who also played as a NYR captain who was overpaid, aging out, and underperforming, let alone showing zero emotion or accountability on a few mediocre teams. Funny how fate now has a bunch of Chris Drury's on the team.