The New York Rangers have lost 10 out of their last 13 games as many people might assume that Peter Laviolette is on the hot seat.
However, that is not necessarily the case. Larry Brooks of The New York Post provided some interesting insight into what the Rangers management group thinks regarding a coaching change.
“The hierarchy has no stomach to fire Laviolette after firing Gerard Gallant two years ago and David Quinn four years ago,” Brooks wrote. “There is no stomach to affix the blame on yet another coach instead of taking care of the coach-averse core.”
It’s true the Rangers didn’t give Quinn or Gallant much time to prove themselves, and now the team is in the same position, so maybe it’s not a coaching problem.
The Rangers have had practically the same core for the past few years and continue to run into the same set of issues.
This team lacks the physicality and strong defensive play to win a Stanley Cup, something that has been evident for a long time despite some regular season success.
Not only that, but the Rangers core is getting older and their once explosive offense doesn’t look all that explosive anymore.
More importantly, there is something fundamentally wrong in New York. The Rangers have lost all confidence and play like a team without an identity.
There is no sense of fear when playing the Rangers, and that’s a major problem.
If the Rangers continue to slip, who knows, Laviolette may find himself out of a job sooner rather than later.
The Rangers have already taken this route of firing coaches prematurely and it hasn’t really worked, so Chris Drury might want to take a different approach or else he’ll be the first one to be fired at season’s end.
