After a quick playoff exit, New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh talks about his determination to get back to June hockey.
The New York Rangers were eliminated from the 2015-2016 playoffs on April 23rd, 37 days earlier then they were knocked out of the Eastern Conference finals by the Tampa Bay Lightning a year earlier. This was also the earliest the team had been eliminated from the playoffs since their 5 game exit against the Washington Capital in 2010-2011.
The fact of the matter was the Rangers team that was out on the ice last year, despite recording 101 points in the regular season, was clearly inferior to the previous few Rangers teams which went on runs to at least the conference finals 3 times in the past 4 years.
One player that simply put is not happy with the early exit in the playoffs is captain Ryan McDonagh. “Unfortunately, this has probably been my longest summer in five years,” said McDoangh to NHL.com last week. “I don’t think I’ve been home before June.”
If McDonagh wants his team to avoid this same fate next season, he, along with the rest of his teammates will have to be much better. This offseason is all about getting refocused. It was apparent that, while the team was not necessarily mailing it in last season–no professional athlete would do that–the team was almost kind of going through the motions. If the team is going to rebound, then they need to be more focused and harder to play against. McDonagh echoed that sentiment in his interview.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some pretty long runs, obviously, not successful as we want to be, but sometimes you kind of lose your focus on how much you need to prepare and how much it takes to get yourself in that position again.”
“Myself, I know I’m working as hard as I can ever remember to try to get myself ready to play the way I want to play, and help to get this team where we want it to be, and where we need it to be. So I think everybody is really excited to get back and work hard as a team and form a group that’s real tough to play against.”
McDonagh is not the first player to mention how motivated he is this offseason, and for good reason. With the way the team played much of last season, every single player needs to be motivated, and as both General Manager and forward Chris Kreider have said in the few weeks have a “chip on their shoulder”.
McDonagh said all the right things in his interview, even going as far to say that he was “embarrassed” by the early round exit, and that very reason has led to his motivation.
The Rangers captain also acknowledged that he believes in this group’s potential based on the past runs the team has made. “There’s a lot of guys who were part of those long runs still around, and we’re going to have good leadership with this team with the guys we’ve got coming back,” he told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti. “I think our group has a good mix of young guys still on the verge of making a name for themselves and being a little hungry, and guys with some experience who want to get back to being successful again.”
As a fan, you have to feel good about your core players coming out and saying the same things like McDonagh said about how they are motivated and excited to get back at it, even if it is the obvious thing to say. McDonagh and his fellow Minnesota natives and teammates Derek Stepan and Brady Skjei all will head to camp for their teams at the World Cup of Hockey in Septemeber, which should help the 3 of them–McDonagh and Stepan are on team USA while Skjei is on Team North America– along with a few other teammates be well into form by the start of the NHL regular season.
Next: Consistency is Key for Chris Kreider
There is still plenty of time in the offseason and plenty of time to train and get ready, but for now, these words of encouragement are getting me pumped and excited for the start of the season. Hopefully, the rest of the team, even the ones who haven’t talked publicly yet this offseason, feel the same way.