Rangers collapse against Kraken shows Trouba Deal won't steady the ship

You could take Jacob Trouba, the human off the New York Rangers but can't extract his contagious defensive daze away from the his teammates. If there was a thought in your brain things would magically go back to Presidents Trophy from after Friday's trade, welcome to reality because that's not how hockey works.

It's a team sport and Sunday's matinee proved the Broadway Blueshirts are still a mess and refuse to shore up their main issues that caused the initial turmoil. Squandering a 3-1 lead to the Seattle Kraken and allowing five unanswered goals which turned into a 7-5 defeat. Let’s not forget, this is the same team the lowly San Jose Sharks beat twice back-to-back.

Trouba was never the sole problem. GM Chris Drury thought moving him and his $8 million AAV to the Anaheim Ducks, was the spark this team needed. They accrued $6.9 million in cap space, a 4th round pick and a young defenseman Urho Vaakanainen who I’ve personally had my eye on for a while. A 25 year-old and former 2017 first round pick in Boston, who has potential as a solid stay at home blueliner  and his defensive metrics are better than the 30 year-old Trouba. Jacob is a solid player but was being paid like a top-pairing defenseman, which he’s not. They had to part ways.

Yet Trouba's train being diverged to another track across the country paved roadway for other Blueshirts to show the team's true colors. They’re still inconsistent, still can’t defend, and remain far from being serious title contenders. Sure, they initially responded with a fiery 4-2 win against the Penguins on Friday, hours after Igor Shesterkin inked his well-deserved 8-year, $92 million ($11.5 milllion AAV) extension. The most lucrative goalie in hockey history was away Sunday for a good reason—his wife is in labor. Jonathan Quick was between the pipes, but the team’s issues resurfaced. That match had a short life on the candle because the Rangers’ issues run far deeper than one player or a trade and it was on full display against Seattle, who recorded their first win at the World's Most Famous Arena in franchise history.

Buzzing Blueshirts Dominate First:

The Rangers came out strong, taking a 1-0 lead early in the first period when Reilly Smith scored his second goal in as many games. After Mika Zibanejad missed the net, K'Andre Miller sent the puck back into play, and Smith cleaned up the rebound past Philipp Grubauer. It was a sloppy goal, but the Blueshirts made it count.

While the Rangers controlled the contest, outshooting Seattle 12-6 and generating four high-danger chances, they missed multiple opportunities to extend the lead, leaving Grubauer, struggling with a 1-8 record, untested too often. Jonathan Quick made big early saves, including a big stop on Vince Dunn during a Kraken power play, keeping the lead intact. Despite their superiority, the Rangers must capitalize better on their dominance against weaker opponents and it backfired later on.

From Dominance to Disaster:

The second period started rough as Oliver Bjorkstrand tied it up for Seattle with a power-play goal. Bjorkstrand was left alone in front of the net for an easy tap-in—poor positioning by Fox and an unfortunate broken stick for Zibanejad made it feel like a 5 V 3 gift. But Filip Chytil quickly responded with a brilliant individual effort. Stickhandling out of the defensive zone, he beat three Kraken players and finished on a feed from Kakko to make it 2-1.

Moments later, Trocheck extended the lead to 3-1 with a power-play strike off a Kreider feed from behind the net. Trocheck's goal marks his fourth in the last five games. Here's the cool part: all three contributors—Trocheck, Kreider, and Fox—will represent Team USA at the Four Nations Cup in February. Seeing them heating up is encouraging for our country.

Everything seemed under control, with Smith and Panarin having prime chances and the Blueshirts having a 21-8 shot advantage midway through the tilt. That was until Seattle flipped the script in the final 5:18 of the period. Brandon Tanev beat Ryan Lindgren and made it 3-2 on a sneaky backdoor tap-in, then Eeli Tolvanen tied it up moments later with a snipe past Quick. The real gut punch came with just 33.8 seconds left as Bjorkstrand deflected a Montour point shot after a clean face-off win, putting Seattle up 4-3.

The Kraken added insurance in the third, as Vince Dunn ripped one from the point, and the burgeoning Shane Wright scored for his third straight game. The Rangers saved some face with K'Andre Miller beating Grubauer again from long range, and Artemi Panarin connecting with Trocheck and Alexis Lefreniere on a tic-tac-tow down low to make it 6-5. Yet the false hope was squashed when Yanni Gourde hit the yawning cage past a stick-checking happy Adam Fox to seal the Kraken comeback victory.

The Devil is in the Details:

All five unanswered Seattle strikes had a common theme. No attention to detail in the defensive or neutral zones. The Rangers weren't strong on sticks, missed assignments, nor were they tough enough to win board battles or stymie the Kraken rush attack. It's long been a team wide problem and while shipping the main culprit helps, the true issue must be fixed by the remaining employees . The Rangers are purposely captain-less right now. Management and head coach Peter Laviolette who are "Together on thoughts", know there has never been a Stanley Cup winner without a designated leader.

However, the group has shown they're unwilling to embrace that burden. Until there's competent defense for consistent stretches, and a changed mindset from an offense-only juggernaut to a defense-first unit, expect more pond hockey on a daily basis. Oh, they'll make the playoffs, because they're too talented. There are enough games against bottom-feeders left like Monday against the league-worst Chicago Blackhawks.

Albeit, the Blueshirts (14-11-1) must go 44-22 to reach the usual magic number of 97 points for a wild card spot, and have been making fellow middling squads like Hockey's Harlem Globetrotters and former hierarchy compatriots world-beaters. They'll sneak into the dance-off, but are first round exits as currently constructed.

Gerard Gallant, echoed the precise sentiment on his way out the door in May of 2023. "Talent doesn't mean a thing. It's great to have talent but when you've gotta play together and work hard together." Here we are, 19 months later with a hall of fame coach at the particular request of those same highly-paid players, and they haven't learned that valuable lesson. And you wonder why your losing?