Rangers have quit on Peter Laviolette — and it will eventually cost him his job
Ownership and management had no stomach for this. The hierarchy was not going to allow this flawed core to fire another head coach less than two years after beseeching GM Chris Drury to dismiss Gerard Gallant in May of 2023, 11 months after going to the conference final.
But that’s what this splintered core has effectively done even if Peter Laviolette remains behind the Rangers bench much like a broken general pleading with his troops not to desert the battlefield. It is only a matter of time, whether it is this week, next month or the moment the season ends.
This is like the old movie plot in which a man has been poisoned and knows he will die in 24 hours but takes the time left to track down his murderer. But in this case, it does not take nearly that long to identify the culprit.
It’s the core.
Now the splintered core.
The Rangers have quit on their coach, they have quit on the organization, they have quit on themselves, they have quit on each other, they have quit on the fans who pay top dollar to fill the Garden and they have quit on New York.
This is worse than the Dark Ages of 1997 through 2004 in which mercenaries filled the Ranger$ roster and missed the playoffs seven straight seasons. I have been watching the Rangers for nearly 70 years, I was in the side balcony while the team was an Original Six laughingstock and I was in the blue seats when it all came tumbling down for Emile in 1975-76, but I don’t know if I have seen anything quite like this ongoing disgrace to the sweater.
Laviolette and his staff have done themselves no favors. The Rangers have no structure. They have not defended from Game 1. There is no coherent way out of the defensive zone. There is no forecheck. The neutral zone has become a sieve. The same mistakes are committed over and over again. There have been few adjustments. There has been no accountability.
This last-place team does not present a single redeeming quality. They lack self-belief. They do not compete. At this point, there is not a single player who is playing well. This has become an unhealthy environment for the kids who are supposed to be learning how to conduct themselves.
Aww, are the core’s feelings hurt? In nearly a half-century in this business, I have never heard more about feelings than I have the last three months.
Barclay Goodrow’s feelings were hurt. Jacob Trouba’s feelings were hurt. Their friends’ feelings were hurt. Boo hoo. Funny, none of them have asked to be traded. I guess they just thought they were just going to fire another coach or maybe this time get the GM.
This is not about saving this season. Yesterday’s not only gone, so is tomorrow. This is about restoring a modicum of credibility to the operation. This is about reapplying a standard so that Drury and the hierarchy have the proper intelligence to make personnel decisions that will impact the next decade.
Ownership proved in 2018 that the goal is not to simply scrape into the playoffs for a couple of postseason home games but to win the Stanley Cup. The Rangers will take a step back in order to take two steps forward.
Drury has made his share of mistakes. The Substack message after which the team has rolled into a fetal position was a mistake, but the team had just had consecutive no-show first periods and had already been outclassed decisively by Washington, Winnipeg and had been humiliated at home by Buffalo. Toxicity had already been in the air for weeks.
The GM’s biggest mistake, however, was not recognizing that bringing Trouba back into the room after the events of the summer — documented accurately in this space in July and in September — would prove destructive.
Power against power, Trouba won but what are his winnings? He will be remembered as the worst captain in the history of the franchise, he has been bounced across the country, separated from his family, could be moved again at the deadline and maybe again over the summer. Or maybe there will be a buyout. A more Pyrrhic victory has never been achieved.
There are seismic decisions ahead. The core as we know it is finished. But they got themselves one more one pelt, didn’t they?
Fait accompli.
The 2024-25 Rangers’ only accomplishment.