Breaking Down All The Latest New York Rangers' Trade Rumors It's that time and you know what I mean. Friday is Ask The Maven Day. Today's question comes via Brooklyn from ardent Rangers fan Breezy Linde. (Take it away, Breezy:) "THE RANGERS KEEP MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES – BAD PASSES, LOSING THE PUCK WHILE STICKHANDLING, POOR ZONE CLEARING. IS THIS ON THE COACH OR THE PLAYERS?" The Maven Responds: Bear in mind that players don't go from stars (last year) to bums overnight unless there are outside forces and – with this club – there have been many. Start with the Jacob Trouba mess, then the GM stating that he'd like to trade Chris Kreider and, finally, the dealing of popular Kaapo Kakko. The coach deserves a lot of blame. Mika Zibanejad has been a disaster on the power play yet Laviolette keeps using him. Lavvy has misused Matt Rempe who could be valuable in the right places. Plus, he's failed to utilize the assets of defenseman Zac Jones. And while I'm at it, both coach and players are to blame for slow starts. There's absolutely no excuse for that or the kind of lazy play we've seen from Artemi Panarin. A bunch of factors are involved including oversized contracts which produce Far Cats which commit all the hockey sins you cited with your questions. But they had better start rectifying them tomorrow in Boston. Or else!
