Key takeaways from Rangers break-up day, including ‘love' for fired coach Peter Laviolette
In the words of New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, 'something broke.'
That is perhaps the most succinct way to explain what went wrong this season for the Rangers, who became just the fourth team in NHL history to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs the season after winning the Presidents' Trophy as the top regular-season team in the League. This season, they fell short of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference by six points, a campaign marked by drama, controversy, and underperformance.
The Rangers held exit interviews at their training facility on Monday, and many players used the opportunity to stress the need for accountability as a key to be better next season
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'Everyone really has to look in the mirror,' star defenseman Adam Fox explained. 'This year was unrecognizable from the team that made the conference finals two of the past three years. A lot of those characteristics and traits that led to that success, they weren't there this year.'
The Rangers were 39-36-7, and their 85 points were 29 shy from 2023-24 when they set franchise records with 114 points and 55 wins. And while last season's squad developed a reputation for fighting back from deficits, it didn't seem to translate over to the 2024-25 team.
'It just seemed like there was a missing sense of cohesion,' Fox continued. 'That resilience that we have come to make our identity — 20-something comeback wins and then we don't get really any this year — I think that's something that we gotta figure out why that was.'
'Obviously, we didn't play up to expectations so that's first and foremost,' center Vincent Trocheck added. 'The way we come out on the ice and how we perform is the first thing that we need to address.'
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Late-season trade acquisition Calvin De Haan shared similar opinions about something missing from New York's on-ice play.
'There's definitely some times I saw that it was just not cohesive on the ice.'
Meanwhile, Alexis Lafreniere pointed out a big reason why the Rangers were unable to right the ship.
'We couldn't really find any consistency in our game.'
The former first-overall pick certainly has a point. The Rangers recorded a three-game winning streak twice this season and failed to do so at any point after November 19. They were edged out by the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff spot, in part, because Montreal strung together a six-game winning streak down the stretch
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'At the end of the day, we don't get up to the level of play that we should with this team,' said Mika Zibanejad, who spoke openly about his disappointing 2024-25 campaign. 'I know this wasn't the season that I wanted, and that's on me. I've got some months here now to make sure that I take advantage of and get ready for next season.'
Zibanejad finished the season with 20 goals and 62 points, despite playing all 82 games. Like many of his teammates, he experienced a major drop-off in production, which helped caused team-wide failure.
The Rangers entered the season with expectations of competing for the Stanley Cup, and pressure to do so after falling in Game 6 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final for the second time in three seasons.
'Pressure is gonna happen. Everyone has pressure on them. We're the New York Rangers,' Trocheck said bluntly. 'In a city like New York, we're gonna have pressure every year, so it's on us to harness that pressure and use it for good.
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'Individually, I think we're all gonna look ourselves in the mirror and reflect on the year and think of things we need to do better. There's a lot of things that are more for internal talks. I have some things in mind, and hopefully, we can all work together this summer to figure it out.'
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Rangers react to coach Peter Laviolette being fired: 'I love Lavi'
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The terribly disappointing season ultimate cost coach Peter Laviolette his job. He was fired Saturday after two seasons with the Rangers — one really good, the other not so much.
'I don't think us players at any point didn't like 'Lavi' or thought his message wasn't getting through. It just seemed the execution was not there,' Fox explained.
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Added Matt Rempe, who made his NHL debut under Laviolette last season, 'The players on the ice, we didn't perform well enough, and then the coach takes the fall. That stings, it's tough. I'm gonna miss seeing him.'
Laviolette's firing wasn't a big shock, given how steeply the Rangers declined from his first season on Broadway into his second.
'Obviously, in a place like New York, you know what our expectations are and after a season like last year, to come in here and not perform the way we needed to and make another run. Coaches are often looked at and blamed,' Trocheck explained. 'I love 'Lavi' and 'Howie' (associate coach Phil Housley), so another coaching change is always hard.'
For some of the longer-tenured members of the Rangers' core, it marks their third head coach in five seasons.
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'We wanna be able to come here with a coach that's here for as long as we're all here,' Fox said. 'Even outlast us as players cause that means we're having a lot of success.'
Fox debuted under David Quinn before playing two seasons respectively under Gerard Gallant and Laviolette. Zibanejad was acquired from the Ottawa Senators during Alain Vigneault's tenure; and Chris Kreider and J.T. Miller are the only two roster players to overlap with John Tortorella, more than a decade ago.
'I think you look around the League, whenever a coach gets fired, players kinda wear that pretty hard because if we did our jobs, those coaches would still be here,' Fox elaborated. 'Whoever the next coach is, obviously it's on us to make sure there's sustained success.'
Related: NHL insider believes Rangers will 'make a call' to highly sought-after NCAA coach
Rangers players call for improved communication
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While many players were quick to take accountability, it's likely that the Rangers' issues go beyond their performance on the ice. As the front office looks for ways to turn the ship around, improved communication was one of the talking points coming from their players.
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'Us players, we have to take ownership of what we do and how we go about things, but it has to be cohesive with everyone,' noted Zibanejad. 'This organization doesn't work without the players. The organization for us players doesn't work without the people that work above us. I heard a lot about open and honesty and communication — we have to communicate about things.'
Zibanejad spoke most intensely about his frustrations with the communication between players and front office, but he was far from the only player to highlight it during exit day.
Minds jump quickly to the offseason when Barclay Goodrow was placed on waivers without being notified in advance by general manager Chris Drury, who was trying to find a way to circumvent the veteran's no-trade clause. Goodrow was subsequently claimed by the San Jose Sharks.
Goodrow was open about his frustration with how the situation was handled, and reports indicated that it did not sit well inside the Rangers locker room. The drama only continued when captain Jacob Trouba had a drawn-out ending to his Rangers tenure, before he was shipped to the Anaheim Ducks early in December.
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'We don't know what's going on, we don't have control over that kind of stuff, but it's still something that we talk about or we have to go through,' Zibanejad continued. 'And it's two of our leaders, our captain and our assistant captain, and big parts of our locker room, so of course it shakes things around a bit.'
Chris Kreider was swept up in drama when reports surfaced that Drury was shopping the longest-tenured Ranger as a trade chip, part of a memo sent to the 31 other GMs.
'It's part of professional sports, but obviously at a certain point, it becomes somewhat of a distraction,' Kreider said. 'Those two guys were massive leaders for us and a big part of our room. I think anytime there's changes or projected changes, an element of it is going to be a distraction.'
'It was a lot of noise around our team this year,' Zibanejad remarked. 'I'm not saying that it is the cause of it, but it wasn't the calmness we had the year before.'
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A more recent grievance was made public by de Haan, whose passing remark about his playing time to reporters after the Rangers had been eliminated from the playoffs caused a stir.
De Haan spoke with media on Monday and was open about some of his frustrations regarding communication, though in far less colorful terms than the week prior in Florida.
'I mean I think it could have been better. I never really was given a direct answer as to why [I wasn't playing]. I think it can always be better. I'm not blaming the coaches, I'm not blaming anyone, I think it can just be better in general.'
De Haan was acquired on March 1 from the Colorado Avalanche in the Ryan Lindgren trade, appearing in just three games before he was scratched for the remainder of the season.
De Haan's outburst last week was one of many distractions revolving the Rangers locker room this season. But Trocheck doesn't want that to become an excuse.
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'There's always outside noise, right. There's always trades that happen,' the 31-year-old explained. 'I think it's on us inside this room in order to make sure that the outside noise doesn't get to us. Whether that's talking to somebody individually or just sticking together as a team or as a family. I think we can get better at that, lifting guys up instead of bringing them down.'
Rangers still 'believe in the group of guys we have here'
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Despite a difficult and challenging season, belief within the Rangers room remains high that this current group of players can bounce back.
'We saw what we were capable of last year. We've got a lot of time this summer to go back and look at what we can do better,' Trocheck said. 'I really believe in this locker room, I believe in everybody, I obviously believe in the talent we have, and I just think it's a matter of us as a team sticking together and figuring out the right way to go about things. Once we have that team belief, then it all starts to snowball in a positive direction.'
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Kreider expressed a desire to remain in New York and continue to play with this current core.
'This is where I want to be, and this is the group I want to help, in whatever fashion, win hockey games.'
Even de Haan, who'll exit as an unrestricted free agent his offseason, was complimentary of the Rangers and their potential moving forward.
'It's a good bunch of guys here, so I don't think that's a pressing issue to blow everything up,' he remarked. 'Going into next year, I think the bar will still be set high for this organization and it should be — there's good players here.'
'I still believe in the group of guys that we have here,' Zibanejad affirmed. 'I think we just have to come together, and I'm hoping that we get a chance to do so.'
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Whether or not they get that chance will depend on what Drury elects to do this offseason. The Rangers have plenty of questions they need to answer and problems they need to fix as they attempt to return to playoff contention next season.
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