If this group isn’t coachable and willing to “buy in,” then there are way deeper issues than the coaching.
I'm not sure what they didn't "buy in" to. They were one of the NHLs most resilient teams all season long and even had some tough comebacks in the playoffs as well.
Their flaws were things I think mostly have to do with personnel. You're not going to get Zibanejad and Kreider to play a heavy forecehcking and cycling game, you're not going to make Wennberg magically score more goals or Kakko to get out of his head once he's down the rabbit hole. You're not going to make Trouba play up to his contract or Lindgren be useful
at most I guess I'd say I wish he'd push them more to make plays on the breakout but in all I don't think I saw anything about this team as unwilling, just they weren't the same type of team as Florida (or Carolina).
They 100% woulda ignored his shit.
The Rangers stopped playing the 1-3-1 with any zeal around January. I don't think Laviolette stays after this year. They already turned him out, he just has better presence so they haven't openly rebelled a la Strome did with Quinn.
They never played the 1-3-1 all the time and more like other teams picked it apart later on, especially in the playoffs.
How long Laviolette stays has to do with how far the Rangers go next year