Dealin’ with new reality
Rangers adjust after overhaul
VANCOUVER — At the very least for those who remain, weeks of head-spinning and uncertainty are over, but the culmination of it all was jarring.
The Rangers’ roster has been shaken to its core, and while the players all get why drastic measures are being taken, the final move of this current phase of reconstruction in which captain Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller were sent to Tampa Bay will reverberate for quite some time.
“Mac wasn’t with us anyway, so I feel like I’m just gonna go back to New York and he’s gonna be in the room. That hasn’t really, I don’t think, sunk in yet,” Marc Staal said here Tuesday after the Rangers’ post-deadline practice. “Millsy obviously was on the flight with us, so we had some time to kill once the deal went through. It’s hard. It’s hard to see friends and teammates — we’ve been through a lot together over the last bunch of years — see them move on.”
McDonagh was both hurt and part of discussions for weeks and didn’t board the flight. Three o’clock came and went, everyone on their phones thinking nothing else happened. Glen Sather informed Miller of the move. Two more huge pieces gone, the present now all about the future. So for guys like Staal, Henrik Lundqvist, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider and Alain Vigneault, all of whom were in a Stanley Cup Final four years ago, these are “unchartered waters,” as Vigneault put it. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. For me, ever since I was really young it was all about, go for it to win,” Lundqvist said. “It was a mindset that I had to work around a little bit, for sure. It was new, but I totally understand it. I understand where we are and what needs to be done now.”
While all eyes are now on the prospects and picks acquired and what other moves might come this summer, the Rangers have 19 games left in what has become a miserable season for a club that made the playoffs 11 of the last 12 seasons. Lundqvist has never played an irrelevant game, the playoff miss in 2009-10 coming down to the final match.
Losing only helps the Rangers’ chances at a high pick in the draft lottery, but for pride and sanity they could sure use a couple of wins, having lost seven straight, 11 of 13 and 17 of 22.
“We’ve got to just kind of regroup a little bit here,” Lundqvist said. “I think a lot of guys have been thinking about this. A big part of our team is gone. Wake up today, you almost can’t believe it. It’s been so many years we’ve been playing together, going through so many things. But now I feel like it’s a new time. You have to make the most of this.”
NO CAPTAIN: The Rangers will not name a new captain for the rest of the season with McDonagh gone. … Newly acquired Vladislav Namestnikov hadn’t arrived here in time to practice Tuesday but is expected to play tonight against the Canucks.