Dog days of summer in Rangerstown

The good old days

The dog days of summer are here, with limited hockey activity and extended lazy days, it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on with the home team. Free agency has come and gone, and now development camp is the most action that we can see. It’s easy to lose sight of a winter sport while playing in the ocean, grilling in the yard, or relaxing with friends.

This year has been particularly difficult, though, in a way that was not apparent in years past: I immediately stopped caring about the Rangers halfway through the final game against the Penguins. It felt as though the Rangers stopped caring, and, as any good jilted lover does, I withdrew. It has been months and I barely wonder about them at all.

Short of sharing my allegiance with another team (I am loyal, no matter how upset I am with the boys in blue), I found myself focusing on other things: other sports, outdoor activities, family, friends. I of course paid attention when the major hockey events occurred, but I still just don’t really care. It’ll be back in September: of this I am sure. But maybe now is the time to ask the question, why am I so apathetic?

Maybe the apathy I feel matched what was perceived by the team on the ice during that Penguins series. There’s no question that the Penguins wound up being the best all-around team for the second half of the 2015-16 season. The Rangers were outmatched from a talent standpoint, from a systems standpoint, from a logistical standpoint.

Still, the worst sporting event I’ve ever attended was Game 4 of last year’s playoffs, the game the Rangers lost 5-0 and the second quietest I’ve heard the Garden (first being Marc Staal’s horrific eye injury, but Game 4 was quieter than Game 7 vs. Tampa). Not being a huge fan of intangibles, it hurts me to say this, but the team was completely absent, and it felt as though the players on the ice were all of us on any given Monday: exhausted, lazy, and waiting for our coffee to kick in.

It is difficult to care for a team that doesn’t seem to care for itself. When was the last time it felt as though the Rangers were highly motivated? I tend to glorify the 2013-14 team. I do this because it was the last time the Rangers have had a character shakeup. The team traded Ryan Callahan, former captain, for Martin St. Louis, then-aging legend. It provided a multitude of change, namely a change in leadership and locker room personality, and also a change in the overall attitude of the team. This was a team that was interested in winning now, and also a team that dodged a potentially horrendous contract in Callahan.

The moves made by the Rangers at the last trade deadline — acquiring Eric Staal, a talented forward that we plain didn’t need — seemed passive, like something that the team should do to send a message that they were confident in their ability to win at the time. It was a nice idea, but as is often said, it was putting a band aid on a bullethole. It addressed none of the actual issues of the team and provided no change in locker room. Heck, even the social media seemed insincere.

Now what can the Rangers do? Is a core shake up necessary at this point, or will tossing out basically the same roster next season be good enough for this team? If the Rangers do make a massive trade, what kind of player should they target? All of these are questions that the front office will need to address during these long, lazy days leading up to next season.