Maybe This is What the Rangers Need

The New York Rangers have been one of the best teams in the NHL over the past three seasons, a stretch that includes two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and a Presidents' Trophy as the league’s top team, and the problem is that they were only one of the best and not the best. Reading this sentence today, you understand exactly what I mean, but that same sentence would have been true had you read it in 2016, and perhaps because of that there should be a little more urgency this time. The core of this team has remained largely unchanged over the last three seasons, one fundamentally built by former General Manager Jeff Gorton, but that could change very soon.

On Monday, Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba both found their names entering the trade rumor mill, and later that evening, the Rangers suffered an embarrassing 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues in which the team look defeated and lifeless. Some of that could charitably attributed to it being a home game following travel from Edmonton, but that would only explain some of it. The heat is definitely on, and perhaps the collective ugliness surrounding the team is the wakeup call the organization needs to show that they are serious about contending for a championship.