in my humble opinion, I can see Igors contract situation being the main driver for the guys like Zib, Kreider, Panarin, and to some extent Trouba (dont think he has much of a choice of this) playing badly.
I would say Igor is one of the first players in a long time to demand huge money from Rangers and it just so happens that to make this happen, one or probably two of those guys need to go.
I wonder if they feel as though they aren't gonna be on the team past this year anyway and its taking a toll on their will to play/put themselves 100 percent on the line like they normally do.
It's hard for me to reason with why theyre playing so bad, they have a great coach and a pretty solid lineup along with a generational goalie.
It’s part of it, but Drury probably threw too many bombs in the locker-room.
When Drury was running Hartford he got into embroiled into melodramas with two different 1st rounders.
Not defending Andersson and Kravtsov, or blaming Drury for them busting, but he didn’t exactly smooth things over with either player.
He weirdly feuded with both, often publicly, which seemed like a bad strategy as both seemed like the types who needed a softer approach. They seemed a bit befuddled by the hostility at times too.
Cut to Drury as the NYR GM. He fumbled his attempt to pressure Trouba into accepting a trade in the off-season.
He also dumped Goodrow in the most awkward way possible, the guy got a 15 minute warning he was going to be on waivers.
Now Cut to November.
They had a bad Western roadtrip and Drury sends out a memo to every GM saying he’s open to trading players. He specifically names Trouba and Krieder.
Trouba is still their Captain and he’s treating like the thing that wouldn’t leave. He’a not rallying shit this year.
Kreider has been a Ranger for 13 years. 10th in Games Played, if he plays 60 more this season for the NYR he’ll be 6th.
10th in Points, 26 more gets him to 8th.
3rd in Goals, 24 more gets him to 2nd.
2nd in PP Goals and soon to be 1st (needs 3 more).
After the News blew up, Drury met individually with Trouba and Kreider, and reportedly the meetings were “very productive” (lol), but that was a f*** up.
The team was 12-6-1 at the time. Shopping veterans without giving them a heads up is pretty awkward and insulting.
And plenty of people think the trade memo was supposed to leak in order to motivate the team and the opposite happened.
The players basically assume the team is getting blown up now and bunch of the leaders are walking dead men.
