Rangers Recap: Where are the trades?

A game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on national TV when the team is clearly on the down swing, what could possibly go wrong? Do not let the 6-5 score fool you, this game was only close because the Penguins are also a bad team who happen to play in this weak Eastern Conference and let in 4 goals in the final 10 minutes of the 3rd period. The problem was, those final 10 minutes in the 3rd were the only time the Rangers looked engaged the entire game. A microcosm of weak leadership, potentially bad coaching, and very little self accountability by a team who is clearly just going through the motions.

The Penguins skated circles around the Rangers for two and a half periods, jumping out to a 5-1 lead with those 10 minutes to go. The Rangers let their emotions win, taking bad penalties that the Penguins capitalized on, building that lead and leading to more frustrations boiling over. The players aren’t happy with themselves, but it sure does look like a lot of them are quitting, knowing trades are coming. They aren’t engaging, they are not mentally preparing to play, and the mistakes they make are costly.

One of those mistakes was Scott Morrow’s pass to Matt Rempe, who wasn’t even looking at Morrow. This led to a quick Anthony Mantha goal and was just symbolic of how the Rangers played yesterday. That was a standard breakout play and now on Morrow. Many were upset with Morrow, but the better question is why wasn’t Rempe expecting a standard breakout pass? These are the kinds of mistakes you don’t normally see a Mike Sullivan coached team make.

JT Miller may go down as one of the worst captains this franchise has ever had. Say what you want about Jacob Trouba, Ryan McDonagh, and other captains along the way, Miller is a snake oil salesman. Sold as a captain who will drag a team into the fight and be hard to play against, all we’ve seen this season is a player who is *hopefully* fighting multiple injuries. Otherwise he’s in a steep decline. Regardless, his play is on him at this point. Looking forward to him turning it up a notch in the Olympics only to be placed on LTIR after. Great leadership.

Remember when we were sold a false bill of goods that this team was going to be hard to play against? It certainly wasn’t on the defensive and goaltending fronts, that’s for sure. With no games until Thursday against Carolina, there better be some trades coming soon. This team needs to be blown up.