New York Rangers: Thoughts on a rudderless season

The New York Rangers will once again be sitting on the sidelines when the NHL playoffs begin this weekend.  That makes four years in a row that the Ranger faithful will have to find rooting interest in some other team to make the most of the best sports tournament in the world.  But what can be taken away from the 2021 season that many see as a major disappointment?

First off, in order to consider the recently completed season a disappointment, one must have set some unrealistic expectations for the team.  They entered the season as the youngest squad in the league.  They were placed in what many considered to be the toughest “COVID” division as well.  And while it was completely acceptable to expect the team to be better, a playoff birth just seemed to be a bit of stretch.

The term rudderless is usually used as an expression to indicate that there was no leadership, no captain or crew to steer a ship safely though it’s passage.  That is not the case with the 2021 Rangers.  In this case, the term rudderless is used to indicate that the damn rudder just fell off the boat.

It started with Tony DeAngelo and the cryptic start to the season by Mika Zibanejad. Then came the off-the-wall Artemi Panarin “scandal”.  Mix in all the COVID-19 issues that took their toll on numerous players and the coaching staff, then top it all off with the leadership bloodbath that began with James Dolan and ended with Chris Drury.

It was a year like no other in team history.