New York Rangers: Stop worry about deck chairs on the Titanic

The New York Rangers are an outright bad hockey team, getting frustrated over lineup choices is as pointless as reorganizing deck chairs on the Titanic.

Coming into the 2018-2019 season, the expectations for the New York Rangers were about as low as possible. There was some internal optimism that perhaps the team could hang around the periphery of the playoff race until mid-winter when the real contenders start to distance themselves from the rest of the pack.

However, through three weeks, it’s pretty clear that this roster of players is in over its head. No team above the peewee hockey level should have three straight games with too many men on the ice penalties. While I’m sure David Quinn is on the verge of ripping his hair out of his head with this group based on the mental mistakes, there is at least a sign of consistency.

The coach is willing to throw out the kitchen sink in an attempt to create any kind of success. Case and point: Vladislav Namestnikov going from healthy scratch to playing the wing on a line with Mika Zibanejad and Mats Zuccarello in the course of a two-week span.

Complaining about the lack of top six ice time for Pavel Buchnevich and Filip Chytil is pointless for a number of reasons. In addition to the obvious, it doesn’t matter how the team does this year, if Quinn thought they were up for it, they’d be doing it.

There’s a willingness to try anything in hopes of winning, so if the coach doesn’t think his young players are up for top-six minutes and they’d be better served in sheltered ice time, that’s where they’ll be in the lineup.

There is a certain irony in the entire situation as a whole. The organization from the top down signed on and was totally transparent about rebuilding from the start. Yet there is an air of surprise that the team is so putrid. The team has a handful of decent roster players, an aging Hall of Fame caliber goaltender and that’s it.

Getting upset over Cody McLeod playing over Vinni Lettieri is illogical. The 2018-2019 season doesn’t hold a lot of weight for the organization. The focus is on being ready to compete for either next year or the year after. There was no practical way in which the rebuild could be completed between the trade deadline of last season and the start of this season.

So, take a deep breath and be patient. The front office gave Quinn a five year deal with the intent of having a proven player development coach guide along the franchise’s young players. There is a plan, it’s a matter of letting the people in the positions of power implement it.

If that entails being a bottom three team in the entire league in hopes of landing Jack Hughes in the entry draft, so be it. It’s about time the team committed to landing a generational talent instead of half baking a player development plan.