Rangers' Hopeless Attitude Both On And Off The Ice Shows Signs Of A Broken Team

The New York Rangers are a broken team. 

There’s no stat or underlying number that could possibly explain the Rangers’ heartless, demoralizing, and frankly humiliating 8-4 defeat to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. 

Going into this matchup, the Rangers had lost four consecutive games, including a 10-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon, as it appeared the team was beginning to crumble, with any semblance of confidence completely shattered. 

“I think we're definitely a little bit of a fragile group right now,” Braden Schneider said on Monday night.

Fragile is an understatement, and it was displayed in their start on Wednesday night, giving up four goals in the first period. 

“I just think when you go through struggles we're going through, our confidence isn't all that high, and when things don't go the right way, especially early on in the game, it can affect the mindset of the group,” Mike Sullivan said. “That's been our challenge, is to try to find a way to keep some resilience, keep a competitive spirit, and enthusiasm, any adjective you want to use to try to give ourselves the best chance to put our best game on the ice.”

There was a lack of urgency and attention to detail shown by the Rangers throughout the opening period, with careless turnovers and effortless defensive play that led to multiple goals from the Senators. 

New York’s dreadful start bled into the remainder of the contest. Two goals from Gabe Perreault and a “late push” to cut Ottawa's lead to 7-4 felt meaningless given how lifeless the Blueshirts looked on top of the concerning downward spiral they find themselves in. 

A Rangers team that once prided itself on its stingy play has lost its identity in every way imaginable. 

Since their astounding Winter Classic victory, which players touted as a turning point in their season, they’ve lost five consecutive games while being outscored 30-11. 

“Early on this season, we lost games, but I thought the effort was there,” Mika Zibanejad said. “I'm not saying the effort (isn’t there now), but our game isn’t. I thought we played better (and) we deserved better early on, but right now, we don't. And that's a tough pill to swallow.”

There’s a sense of hopelessness and defeat coming out of the Rangers’ locker room, which is palpable from the second you walk in. 

Players have run out of words and have simply stopped even trying to explain themselves after losses. 

That has led to an overall lack of accountability, and it starts with Rangers’ captain J.T. Miller. After the team’s past two losses, Miller failed to articulate himself in his postgame interviews with the media, giving short-ended, blunt responses, not saying what is necessary of a captain, let alone the captain of an Original Six franchise.

“No sh–t. We’d like to not be down 4-0 after the first but after that we responded well. Played with some pride,” Miller said on whether getting behind the eight ball early set the tone in a negative way.

“Bad first period. We responded. Played pretty well after that,” Miller said of the Rangers’ performance. 

Between their play, body language on the ice, and tone after games, it’s evident that the Rangers are a team that is mentally broken. 

“We've gone through a rash of emotions,” Sullivan emphasized. “There's been tons of anger. We've run through the gamut of emotions here trying to get it going in the right direction, and we'll try to solve it. We've got to work hard. We got to work together. We have to stick together. We got to stay together. We got to compete together, and that’s what we are going to do.”

The Rangers sit in last place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 20-22-6 record, while they face an uphill climb to make the playoffs, currently eight points out of the second wild-card spot. 

All the while, chants of “Fire Drury” continue to ring loud at Madison Square Garden, with pressure mounting on Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury and a large weight of the blame for the team’s struggles placed on his shoulders. 

The season is quickly unraveling for the Blueshirts, and their demoralized attitude both on and off of the ice doesn't provide much hope moving forward.