The New York Rangers are a hot mess right now. They're 4-6 in their last ten games, and have began to tumble down the Metropolitan Division standings. The head coach shares some part of the blame, but the players have been showing a tremoundus lack of effort. It's only a matter of time before he loses the locker room, if he hasn't already.
Rumors surrounding the Rangers have been going rampant every since a report came out that the team was looking to trade some big names. Now, new reports state that Laviolette is on the hot seat.
The case for firing him is pretty self-explanatory. New York is showing little to no life on the ice, and the defensive play has been non-existent all season. The Rangers brought Laviolette in because he was a strategic coach; he had a system that has worked in many other places, and that system worked with the Rangers last season. The Rangers fired Gerard Gallant because they had no system, which means the team had no cohesion. Now, we're seeing the same exact problem once again.
The first Devils goal came off of a rush from the Rangers. Defenseman Braden Schneider joined the rush with Filip Chytil. When the pass from Chytil to Schneider was broken up, the puck went to the boards, where Alexi Lafraniere was there to contest. However, Artemi Panarin, looking to make a play in the offensive zone, lost sight of his assignment, which was to cover the back end with Schneider playing up on the puck. Instead, he skated over the blue line, giving the Devils an easy pass into a 2-on-1 which led to a goal.
The bad play in the defensive zone has made life for the goaltenders of the Rangers, Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, so much harder. Shesterkin is looking for a big contract this season, and at this rate, he may not even want to come back to the team next season. Laviolette is the head coach. It's his job to ensure that his players know what their doing in any situation on the ice. Laviolette's system rewards his defenseman for being aggressive and joining the rush. The Rangers have the personal for that. The problem is when their forwards don't understand what they need to do to prevent easy opportunities for the other team. That can make goaltenders easily frustrated, as they have to make big saves every few minutes just to keep the game from being a complete blowout.
Another problem is the lack of energy on the bench. It feels like after one or two goals against, the Rangers just hang their heads, acting like the whole game is lost already. Laviolette needs to get his team back in the winning mindset. Between the regular season and playoffs, New York had 34 comeback wins last season. Where's that mindset now? It feels like it's completely vanished. The motto of this team last year was No Quit in New York. So far, it looks like quitting is the only thing on the players' minds.
Firing Laviolette may not solve all of the Rangers problems, but if that doesn't send a message to the team, then who knows what will. The Rangers didn't fire Gallant in the middle of the season, and I think firing Laviolette now if the Rangers continue down this path through December will whip the team alive. If not, Rangers fans better prepare for a bumpy ride through December and January.