There is no single reason why the Rangers are this bad – It’s everything

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Rangers are bad. Like, really bad. They are actually historically bad from a puck possession stand point as well.

Suffice it to say, this is not going as planned. For the Rangers to be 2014-2015 Sabres bad when they acquired Jacob Trouba, signed Artemi Panarin, and got the second overall pick is inexcusable. Rob also points out that the structure and defense pairs need to change. I certainly agree, but those are just two of many problems plaguing the Rangers at the moment. Let’s go through what we’ve seen.

• Defensive structure – specifically giving up the blue line by design, leading to speed through the neutral zone and sustained pressure against.
• Defense pairs – this is mostly Marc Staal based, unfortunately.
• Sustained offense is inconsistent, leading to more time in the defensive zone.
• Lack of center depth and a true 2C.
• Lack of communication to prospects, leading to the Vitali Kravtsov situation.
• Lack of skill up and down the lineup, leading to third line winger Brendan Smith.
• Constant line changes that would make Tom Renney blush.
• Lack of ice time for the prospects that are supposed to be the future.
• Questionable coaching all around, starting with David Quinn.

Suffice it to say, there are a lot of problems with the Rangers. However I don’t think that effort and desire is one of them. There is a lot of talk about winning battles, etc. But if the team isn’t skilled enough or fast enough to get to those corners and win the battles, then they can try all they want, they won’t succeed.

The discussions on social media have focused almost entirely on one of these issues at a time. However it’s not one issue. It’s all of these issues, and they compound each other to the point of what we see on the ice today. It’s ugly.

The good news is that some of these issues are easily remedied. The bad news is that we haven’t seen any indication that the Rangers are willing to take the steps needed to fix these issues. The focus is always on effort, which is a cop out answer and deflects blame to the players and not to where the issues truly lie, with the decision makers.

*Don’t get me wrong, the players aren’t executing at all. But it’s not about effort, they just aren’t good enough as currently constructed.

John Davidson is supposedly the rebuilding guru. David Quinn is supposedly the development master. It’s beyond 10% of the season, and the Rangers look like a train wreck. A rebuild requires patience, however that leash should be getting awfully short for certain players and coaches.