New York Rangers’ coaching hires are good, rumored roles are curious
The New York Rangers hired two new assistant coaches on Tuesday afternoon. Both seem to be good hires on the surface, but a report by the New York Post has rained on the team’s parade.
It took a really long time, 55 days to be exact, for brand new New York Rangers head coach David Quinn to find his future assistant coaches.
We’ve all known that Lindy Ruff and Benoit Allaire would be holdovers but the other candidates were a mystery to everyone in the industry.
On that 55th day, the Rangers announced that Greg Brown and David Oliver would be added to their staff.
Brown was an assistant coach for Boston College over the last 14 years. During his tenure, he worked with the team’s defensemen and ran BC’s penalty kill.
Oliver played 14 games with the Rangers in 1996-97. He’s been working for the Colorado Avalanche for years in many different capacities. He was an assistant under Quinn in Lake Erie earlier in this decade, so the two have lots of familiarity.
Related: Rangers hire Brown and Oliver
All of this was fine and good, until Larry Brooks of the New York Post revealed what the Rangers’ plan would be for their coaches:
"“The plan calls for Oliver and Ruff to accompany Quinn behind the bench while Brown will be upstairs. Brown and Ruff will work with the defense. Ruff, who along with goaltending coach Benoit Allaire survived the purge that cost Vigneault and assistants Scott Arniel and Darryl Williams their jobs, will be responsible for the penalty kill, while Oliver and Brown will share responsibility for the power play.”"
Now, based on what each of their assistant coaches’ strengths are, you would think that it would be Brown and Ruff behind the bench with Oliver being an eye in the sky. Brown seems like a natural fit to work with the defenseman and run the penalty kill while Ruff, who’s had experience running really good power plays, would do just that.
It is very likely that Quinn knows something I don’t so I trust him in his decision making. However, you could understand how this arrangement looks weird.
In fairness to Ruff, his penalty kill ranked 12th in the league last season. The 5-on-5 defense, however, looked like a disorganized mess last season, so hopefully Brown’s input could help. Brown has been regularly regarded by those in the industry as a brilliant “X’s” and “O’s” tactician.
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Regardless of roles, the sum of a young and mostly inexperience coaching staff and a young and mostly inexperienced roster equals loses. Many, many loses. With that said, it’s gonna be hard to judge their success next season. All in all, though, next season should be an interesting one for Rangers fans.