Blame it on Lavvy.
That's the easiest way to dissect the skeleton that was the Rangers' 2024-25 version of defense. It was all coach Peter Laviolette's fault.
The Alibi Ike's claim that Pistol Pete's man-on-man D-zone coverage caused "confusion" among the likes of Adam Fox, Braden Schneider and their merry band of sometimes-bodycheckers.
"Not only were the errors painfully visible," writes Steve Zipay in the Hockey News Yearbook. "But the metrics were telling."
Metrics, schmetrics; has it dawned on Zipay that Lavvy's blueprint was right but the players botched it up.
It doesn't matter; Mike Sullivan's gonna make everything right with a – get this – a "Box and Zone" system which, Zipay tells us, "stresses positional play."
How nice!
What's really going to matter is whether His Majesty Chris Drury guessed right in his selection of Slava Gavrikov as the new balance wheel on defense.
According to Drury's blueprint, Gavvy is supposed to make Adam Fox better because last season's Dmen let down Foxy who once won a Norris Trophy.
"The real issue," says The Old Scout, "is whether the rest of the core – Will Borgen, Braden Schneider and Cam Soucy can strengthen what K'Andre Miller, Zac Jones could not."
The Maven believes that young Scott Morrow – mishandled and misused in Carolina – will emerge to shine the way Brad Park did in those golden seasons of long ago.
Let's get all excited about Gavvy and Foxy right now. We'll know a lot more by Christmas!