There is a fine line between reaction and overreaction. The side on which Rangers coach David Quinn falls, following Thursday’s embarrassment of a 4-0 loss on the opening night of the Islanders, could reverberate during the season if the coach chooses badly.
“This is a balancing act,” Quinn said after Friday’s practice, in which Tony DeAngelo was sent to skate with the JV team and, in essence, every combination of line and defense was juggled. “We are certainly very alarmed by what has happened [Thursday] night.
“It simply came to our notice then. It was a complete shock to us as a staff. ”
Of course, it was a single game. Of course, it was just Game One. Of course, there will be speed barriers on the road, for not only this team, but also any team, to face. It would be crazy to panic and start throwing furniture in the middle of a 60-minute rage in a 3,360-minute plus season.
But Thursday’s smelly effort can’t simply be undone, as just one of these things. The loss was the most insignificant for the Blueshirts in an opening in the last 40 years, as the club from 1980-81 was truncated by the Bruins, 7-2, on the way to an escape with 3-12-3. Indeed, Rangers have been beaten by four goals or more in an opening just four times in franchise history. So no, this doesn’t happen every day.
But in the wake of a performance in which Quinn, both immediately after the game and again on Friday, said, “Nothing good happened … in any way,” the player combinations were less of an issue than the team’s intent and training. . And certainly, the coaching team shares the responsibility for the total eclipse of the team’s heart.
DeAngelo has been temporarily demoted – he can’t be officially assigned to the taxi crew without removing the waivers, which could be a 50-50 proposal at the moment, given the ice baggage he’s still in – due to bad behavior , not because he was one of the thousands thrown to play poorly.
There was no excuse for the defender to endure a penalty of unsportsmanlike conduct through his mouth and then slamming the door to the box after he was called to hold a bear hug for a minute in the third period. Indeed, DeAngelo appeared swollen on the bench at several different points of the contest.
Rangers and Quinn thought they took such action two years ago, when DeAngelo was a repeated scratch for “maturity issues.” It was nothing from last season. But here we are, a game in 2020-21.
“Tony got an undisciplined punishment, he and I had a conversation and we just have to make sure this doesn’t happen,” Quinn said. “I have taken too many penalties [shorthanded eight times] on [Thursday], we took too many penalties last year and we have to push it into the buds right now. ”
Quinn declined to say whether DeAngelo will be scratched for Saturday’s rematch against the islands, but the smart money says yes, he will be dressed in the street. Each tandem of defense changed in training, with Ryan Lindgren skating with Jacob Trouba, Jack Johnson on the left of Adam Fox and Brendan Smith on the right with K’Andre Miller.
Two things here: 1) Why break the Lindgren-Fox combination that was the best team last season; and, 2) If the idea is to reduce the pressure on Miller by moving him out of a pair of matches with Trouba, why not reunite Smith with Trouba to rebuild the pair that was so effective after the trading deadline?
And, I think the third and fourth: Why change each defense combination and what does Johnson mean that lifts him above Smith in the order of the hammer?
In addition to the Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich unit, the other three lines were also flexed. Most notably, Quinn moved Alexis Lafreniere up and over in the right wing on line 1A with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome, while Kaapo Kakko was abandoned in a third remodeled unit with Filip Chytil and Phillip Di Giuseppe.
I spent the summer lobbying for Lafreniere to immediately get a top six spot and I think it’s worth it. But this move will be seen more as a demotion for Kakko than as a promotion for Lafreniere. If this is the case internally, it could be reversed. Rangers simply can’t afford to diminish Kakko right now, before they even have a chance to establish a foothold.
“This is the second year. Everyone here thinks he’s a very good player. We only need boys to appear in the evening and in the night, to compete night and night and it is no different “, said the coach about the 19-year-old wing. “He was on a bus full of guys who didn’t have good nights, so he has to be better, but everyone has to be better.”
That’s all it is. The rangers need to be better. Better. The route there will be paved with elections. Choosing the wrong ones could have long-term consequences.