This team checked out on GG & Co around the Winnipeg game. That is almost immediately after coming out of the pre-season... Maybe not him on a personal level, he's a likeable bloke, but the team cannot stand his decisions in many cases, just as this board facepalms much of the time. And the less said about his assistants the better by the looks of it. Something is very off, Trouba didn't speak up for no reason.
There is friction in the room even if the multitude of "leaders" (Trouba apart) pretend like nothing when it's they who should be on top of it. If they, the leaders, are the problem it's a HUGE problem to sort out. Friction with the coaches, friction within the team and friction within the locker room leadership... These frictions come from internal contradictions that need to be sorted out but are not easy to sort out.
Example: the leadership group are in the "win now group", if they want a cup the time is now. The kids are in a different situation, they need to establish themselves and grow into the next generation leaders, but they cannot since they are blocked by the star group. The kids are a different generation with a different approach.
Example 2: I don't think this is the typical "1 or 2 assholes" in the room stinking things up situation. I do think there are a multitude of different issues that are more subtle than personal dislike between people, which makes them difficult to pinpoint and address.
Example 3: Seeing Goodrow and Panarin laugh during scrums in the Blackhawk debacle while other Rangers were extremely frustrated was galling.
Is there someone mature and adult enough to see through all of this and come up with solutions? There rarely is and if they do they will have my admiration. If management works to shut things down and put the lid on things (like they have) things will deteriorate as we see now. This team's leadership issues begin at management level. Can management take responsibility instead of just kicking down?
Someone mentioned Colorado. Mackinnon and Mikko et al are strong leaders, but they are also the cutting edge of that group, they don't have the same contradictions to deal with since they are the cup core and they have both younger and older players around them as complements. The Ranger core is not of that caliber, and they are older, not older more mature in the sense the Bergeron group in Boston are but old enough to create a very marked divide to the kids that are the Rangers' next generation.
It's pretty clear GG & Co do not have a handle on the situation, their approach is not helping, so the players checked out. It does not help that upper management is not very competent. All of this adds up to frustrated players and star players playing for themselves.
Absolutely. Instead the Rangers will target players like Kane, Tarasenko and Domi depending on cap circumstances etc.
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