New York Rangers: Nothing more than feelings

A few weeks ago after Colin Blackwell played a big role in a win, New York Rangers head coach David Quinn mentioned that sometimes you need to just coach by feel and let the eye test determine a players’ ice time and when he gets that ice time should not be determined by where or when they were drafted.

With that bit of coaching wisdom in mind, I informally polled a handful of my Ranger fan friends and asked them how they feel about some specific things surrounding the Rangers so far this season. Here are a few of the responses.

Mika Zibanejad really needs to get going.

This is fairly obvious and something all Ranger fans must feel.  To give ZBJ the benefit of the doubt, it seems like he is playing through some sort of injury.  Some have pointed to his bout with COVID-19 and lack of real preparation to the season as the reason for the his slow start, but some sort of lower body injury sure seems like it could be a real possibility as well.

He just looks a little slow on his skates.  The explosiveness that was so evident last season is just not there yet.  That screams nagging injury issue.

While he has been getting his game back slowly and looked better in the game against the Islanders on Monday night, his lack of scoring is becoming alarming.  Let’s hope it is not too much longer before he hits his stride and we all start feeling good about his game again.

The emergence of K’Andre Miller really made the decision to jettison Tony DeAngelo a whole lot easier to swallow.

Of course it has.  DeAngelo is a love him or hate him type of player.  You can love the style, swagger and offensive production he brings to the team or you can hate the defensive lapses, silly penalties and off-ice agenda.

When the Rangers signed him to two-year deal at 4.8 million per year, just as many Ranger fans thought it was foolish as loved it.  But none of those fans saw K’Andre Miller as a rookie option on the blue line, much less the rock steady player he has been since game two.

Now, as the Rangers begin playing their second ten games, DeAngelo is the forgotten man and some fans feel K’Andre Miller is a rookie of the year candidate.

So what to do with Tony D?  Surely the Rangers would like to move him in a trade deal but to where?  Calgary and Sam Bennett has popped up as an option but that seems to be going nowhere.  Another player who would be an interesting option, and isn’t exactly working out with their new team is Derek Stepan up in Ottawa.

Stepan would make for a nice reunion with his former team as a third/fourth line center.  He can also kills penalties and more importantly, win face-offs. However, his $6.5 million cap hit does not make this a really feasible option.  There would have to be some work done by Jeff Gorton to find a way, but Stepan’s contract would not be a long term burden as this is the last year of his deal and it may be worth exploring with the injury to Filip Chytil.

Under normal circumstances, this is not a deal you would want the Rangers to pursue, but given the unusual circumstances with Tony D, the injury to Chytil and the real need for a face-off guy, this seems like it could work.  It feels like Stepan could be a decent insurance policy.

Patience with the kids

The top thing that the informal poll returned was that many Rangers fans feel that Coach Quinn really needs to show patience with the all the kids on the team. The constant line juggling and inconsistent ice time from game to game is doing more harm than good.

Okay, stunning revelation here; not one person polled is an actual NHL coach.  But this wasn’t about how Quinn should coach the team, it’s about how fans feel.  Fans have the right to feel strongly about this team and this is clearly something fans have noticed and feel strongly about.

Fans don’t want to see Quinn ruin a kid’s confidence during the rebuild. We like the kids. The last thing any Ranger fan wants to see is the team give up on one of the prospects too early. There is a long list of young NHL players that the Rangers gave up on only to see them excel in later years.

It can’t be easy to be a teenager in the NHL, and most fans understand that there will be growing pains.  It appears that the fans are willing to deal with those pains a little more than the head coach.  But then again, we are not the ones with the job on the line.

Feeling good

Finally, the general sense among fans and friends is a good one.  The first six games were tough to watch, with the exception of the second game of the season against the Islanders, but things are looking up.  The win over the Capital was a big boost to moral and most fans are looking forward to the coming battles with the Bruins and Flyers.

The team did suffer another shutout loss at the hands of the hated Islanders Monday night but circling back to get reaction to the game was not something this writer felt like doing.