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I’m not going to draw a straight line between a captain’s absence and the Dust-Up in the tunnel between Tony DeAngelo and Alex Georgiev after Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Penguins that rocked the franchise world and almost certainly marked the end. from Broadway Track No.77.
Mark Messier, Vic Hadfield, Barry Beck, Ron Greschner and Ryan Callahan could all have worn the sweater and the “C” on Saturday and they couldn’t have prevented the spontaneous combustion that occurred.
But I do believe the Rangers, who seem to be facing all kinds of issues as they struggle to strike a balance right out of the gate and regain the positive 2019-20 vibes they seemingly left behind in the Toronto bubble. , need a captain. I think they need an identifiable leader among the leadership group.
And at this point, there is no better man for the job than Chris Kreider, who in his 10th year with the organization has established himself as the voice of the team.
Ahead of the season, the hierarchy that includes chairman John Davidson, general manager Jeff Gorton, head coach David Quinn and assistant general manager Chris Drury, concluded that the team would benefit from going with four substitutes rather than one. captain. This implied that the group did not believe Kreider or the alleged lead candidate, Mika Zibanejad, were suitable candidates.
With that in mind, a few weeks ago I suggested that Jacob Trouba would be a logical candidate to fill the position from next season. This follows the fact that the defenseman was praised by Quinn for his work in the room following the 4-0 debacle of a loss to the Islanders.
That was a little over two weeks ago, although it seems like a decade has passed since then. Good Ship Ranger has leaked one after the other and is in danger of becoming the SS Minnow. Of course, the trainer will ultimately be held responsible for the fate of the ship. But a strong and distinctive first companion will also be necessary.
And that would be Kreider, who has had blue blood running through his veins since joining the Rangers at the start of the 2012 playoffs, just days away from the BC Chestnut Hill campus.
Perhaps there were management concerns – there had certainly been years of training at No.20 – that Kreider internalized too much, worried too much, and the harbor master’s office became a burden on him.
But Kreider’s growth in stature has been steady even though consistency on the ice remains elusive. On Saturday, visibly upset (and now we know why there was reason to be, beyond the outcome) on the Zoom media call, Kreider called out the team for their unfortunate performance in leaving another lead third period escape.
It wasn’t Kreider in his locker speaking quietly to an individual reporter to get the point across. It was Kreider using his platform to tell his teammates that it just wasn’t good enough. And knowing Kreider, he’s almost certain he sent this message straight before he detonated it in cyberspace, where it will remain for all of eternity or until the cloud is full.
It’s one thing to have four alternates in Zibanejad, Kreider, Trouba and Artemi Panarin, but if there is a captain then he becomes the singular individual in charge of setting the bar. He becomes the player responsible for facing his teammates if the effort is not good enough.
There have been all kinds of wild stories that have been circulating the internet over the past couple of days regarding DeAngelo and his allegedly sick relationship with K’Andre Miller. Many individuals have told us that there is nothing for them and rather inventions to suit a narrative.
The Rangers are expected to vigorously refute these stories during a press briefing ahead of Monday’s rematch at the Garden against the Penguins. Professional sports teams generally tend to circle the wagons in such cases, but it would be up to Davidson and the hierarchy to provide as much transparency as possible here in order to counter the stories that have started to gain traction.
(Additionally, there are stories circulating that Kreider punched DeAngelo in the face after the initial imbroglio was broken by Miller, as The Post reported on Monday morning. That’s just not true, according to several people familiar with the situation.)
A young team with a still young coach in the NHL is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. The goalkeeper was unstable. The structure was transitory. Now that has caused the forced departure of one of last season’s most important assets.
The Rangers need a leader. They need a captain.
Call Kid K.
I’m calling Chris Kreider.
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