Let’s take a moment for a deep breath and a long exhale…
The last couple of days have been pretty bonkers around the New York Rangers, huh? The week started straightforward enough, with the last few games of a regular season that set the Rangers up to take a lot of positives into the summer. They hung around a playoff race against four of the top 11 teams in the league from last season into the final six days of this one. The rebuild was ahead of schedule and with some cap space to work with, they’re in a position to, perhaps, take it a little further and get into the post-season in 2022.
That last one may still come to fruition.
Then one controversy immediately followed another in the span of three days, adding up to one of the more confounding chapters of the 2020-21 season. Tom Wilson lit the fuse, but the Rangers set off the fireworks.
There was the complaint through social media, of course, with a team outrageously (and to some, courageously), calling for the head of player safety’s job after George Parros declined to suspend Wilson for Monday’s antics. The next afternoon the Rangers fired their team president and general manager, a tandem that has only found improvement and built a promising roster, apparently for totally unrelated and on-ice reasons. Nothing to see here, just an impulsive owner who didn’t agree with the plan anymore.
The timing was curious, though, and the reasoning questionable. Since issuing a letter to its fans that declared a rebuild in 2018, New York has improved year over year and has an exciting core mixed with youth and stars. Perhaps the decision to fire John Davidson and Jeff Gorton had nothing to do with the Parros message, but it’s hard to believe the Wilson incident played no role at all.
“They are both great hockey professionals who worked hard for the Rangers,” James Dolan, executive chairman of MSG Sports, said in a press release, adding this notable nugget: “however, in order for the team to succeed in the manner our fans deserve, there needs to be a change in leadership.”
Is it that the fans deserve an accelerated rebuild? Or was a perceived “lack of toughness” that was magnified Monday night a factor in this?
In the time between the news of the firings breaking and the official team announcement, there was much speculation over who would take over and what the direction would be. In that window, former Ranger Mark Messier hopped on ESPN NY Radio and talked about his vision on how a successful team plays.
“In my opinion, if you’re going to win, you got to be able to win in the street and the alley,” he said. “I particularly would not have built the team that didn’t have answers in this regard.”
Asked if he’d like to be part of the front office team: “I’ve made it very clear that I’ve been standing by ready to help out in any way for many years. I don’t really know what else to say.”
Associate GM Chris Drury was named both president and GM of the club.
Hours later the Rangers stepped into a rematch against the Capitals with revenge on the mind, starting the game with a line brawl and a league record six fights in the first five minutes. Sixty-nine total penalty minutes followed the rest of the way, which by the way, overshadowed an emotional TJ Oshie hat trick scored in the first game since his father passed away. It was a 4-2 Capitals win.
All of it absolutely wild — but just the latest in a season-long drama.
Before this young team even got out of the first month it had its Tony DeAngelo moment, when the controversial player with a problematic behavioural history had a physical altercation with Alexandar Georgiev immediately after stepping off the ice from an OT loss. That was DeAngelo’s last game with the team. He was sent home and the plan was to buy him out this summer.
In late February, after a 6-7-3 start, the Rangers lost their best player for a time when Artemi Panarin took a leave of absence following assault allegations in Russia stemming from a 2011 incident. Panarin denied them and the team backed him, calling the uncorroborated report an intimidation tactic for his outspoken political views against Vladimir Putin. Panarin returned nearly a month later.
In an 82-game season this would be a roller-coaster ride of events — in a four-month, 56-game sprint that is a heck of a lot for a developing team to grapple.
“I jokingly said to Alexis (Lafrenière) he’s seen more drama and just generally wild, unorthodox things happening in the first two months of the season than I’ve experienced over the last decade or so,” Chris Kreider told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan three months ago.
Chris Kreider said this in February. Imagine how he feels now!
“I jokingly said to Alexis (Lafrenière) he’s seen more drama and just generally wild, unorthodox things happening in the first two months of the season than I’ve experienced over the last decade or so.”
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) May 5, 2021
When Kreider made those comments there were already plenty of on-ice storylines to untangle. The Rangers were sixth in the division, closer to New Jersey and Buffalo than anyone else. First-overall pick Lafreniere had two goals (and no assists) in 16 games, while 2020 second-overall pick Kaapo Kakko was following his largely underwhelming rookie campaign with three points in 14 games. Mika Zibanejad, fresh off his career-best season, started with just four points in 16 games.
They came back from all of that, but this week, out of nowhere, were hit with their roughest turbulence yet.
“We’re all surprised. I certainly was and talking to the players they certainly were as well,” said head coach David Quinn, whose own job is now in question. “We all felt good about what we’ve done up to this point.”
Added Ryan Strome: “It’s obviously a crazy day. You add in the anxiety or anticipation all day from our group and then waking up from a pre-game nap with the whole set of news, I think it’s never easy. I think pro sports is a tough business.”
So what started as a Tom Wilson hate-fest and a Capitals or league story has now unexpectedly bloomed into the latest episode of the Rangers’ 2021 soap opera. These effects will linger and now, as promising as this team showed in the back half of the season, there are far more questions about what the direction is than there needed to be. They seem so close to a break out, but if adding a physical element becomes a priority you wonder if that’ll help anything, or get in the way of progress. It really could go either way. That’s in Drury’s hands now.
Take a breath and hold on. In this absolutely bonkers Rangers season, the next sharp turn could come at any moment.
