The New York Rangers suffered yet another loss in what has become a cataclysmic jump off a bridge in the last two months. Their record fell to 17-20-1 after initially starting 12-4; they lost 7-4 to the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena.
Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad, who has faced plentiful criticism for his subpar performance this season, had a frank assessment of his team’s struggles and said they had no other choice but to try and remain positive, via TSN.
“What’s our option? What’s our option? Just say, ‘We’re done with the season?’ No, we can’t.”
“It’s a little bit of everything,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “It’s not just the power-play goals. It was the even-strength goals as well. We gave up four of them. So, we score four and we give up four and that’s too much.”
The Rangers are desperately searching for answers in a season that’s running out of time.
The New York Rangers went to the Eastern Conference Final last season
The Rangers retained nearly their entire roster from last season; they were the President’s Trophy winners as the best team in the regular season and advanced to the Eastern Conference Final.
But after a 12-4 start, they’ve lost 16 of their last 24 games. In fact, former Rangers icon Mark Messier called out the current leadership core in New York as “fractured”.
“The core of the Rangers is fractured right now,” Messier explained. “And I don’t think they’re fractured internally. I think there’s a disconnect between management and the coaching staff, there’s a lack of trust and loyalty now and in order to get over that it’s going to take a lot of work.”
“You can tell with Kreider, one of the longest-standing Rangers of all time, he’s clearly been hurt by being put on the trade block, for whatever reason,” he said. “That has had a profound effect on the core of the team. When you put Chris Kreider on the trade block, that affects his best friend, Zibanejad. The cascade effect of that has clearly been evident over the last month.”
The Rangers will continue their schedule with a matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday at United Center.
