While last year’s New York Rangers missed expectations for the wrong reasons last season, the players seem to believe they’ll be in store for a positive version in the 2018-2019 season.
The lethargy that surrounded the New York Rangers during the home stretch of the 2017-2018 season was extremely disappointing. Injuries ravaged the team and the front office ultimately determined that it would make more sense to tear down the existing team than invest further. This left a disjointed mix of players that did not understand their coach or the direction.
Then head coach Alain Vigneault had gotten used to running the team in a certain way. The hands off approach only works if a team is comprised of veterans that largely police themselves. This is why the coach’s first two seasons in New York were far more successful than the other three. These were veteran groups that just needed to show up at the rink and they’d be ready to go.
But, after the injury problem and the roster tear down, there was a lot of unknown. The lineup was seemingly pulled out of a hat every single night with no rhyme or reason. Vladislav Namestnikov played fourth line minutes with Cody McLeod on one of his wings. This is the same Namestnikov that prior to being traded played alongside Steven Stamkos and Nikkita Kucherov.
Whether or not this is blind optimism of a relatively young group vouching for their new coach remains to be seen. However, there is clearly a different environment and vibe in training camp this year.
The change
Every Rangers player I spoke to today raved about the vibe around the team, the pace they practice with, the coaching they’re getting, the drills they’re running and how well conditioned they are. It’s September still, but as one player said, “We’ll be better than you think.”
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) September 25, 2018
The former Boston University coach has the team playing with a jump in their step and has the team practicing hard. The rationale being, if a team practices like they are going to play, it breeds a culture of success.
This is a departure from years past in which the largely veteran Ranger team would often elect to use practice days for rest and rehabilitation. Even when a player is not injured, they are using off days for treatment to try and get into a physical condition in which they are ready to play.
Why not us?
It is a very simple motivating force, but “nobody believes in us,” can be super effective. Take the Vegas Golden Knights last season as an example. The situation is not quite the same and Vegas also had the rallying of an entire city behind them. That was a team of professionals that had been told that they were not good enough so they’d just be given away.
This Rangers team is simply rebuilding and expected to be bad. There is a difference, there is not an entire team of under utilized players waiting to break out. The locker room is just littered with professional hockey players who do not like being told that they’re going to be bad. There is something about proving people wrong that moves the needle for professional athletes.
There are reasons for optimism when it comes to the team this year. Several young players have excelled during the preseason and should make the team exciting even if they are not good. The team should create lots of scoring chances and give up lots of chances at the same time. This potent recipe should make for lots of high scoring games.