Increased intensity a welcome change
HEY were talking about practice at Thursday’s introductory press conference for David Quinn. The 35th coach of the Rangers talked about practice, so did general manager Jeff Gorton, and so did lettermen Kevin Shattenkirk and Kevin Hayes, both of whom are familiar with Quinn’s methods. In fact, they talked about practice so much at the Garden that Allen Iverson’s head must have hurt by the time the festivities had ended. Attention to detail, work habits and sound defensive structure are the tenets by which the Rangers will live and breathe playing for Quinn. This will mark a dramatic and refreshing change from the previous regime, under whom practices became fewer and farther between (and less constructive) and the papier-mâché structure eroded as Alain Vigneault’s tenure reached five years. In one sense, this move from the veteran with 1,216 NHL games and 648 career victories to this NHL neophyte was a radical one in keeping with the organizational philosophy to go young. But examined through a different lens, replacing a laissez-faire coach who had become lax in his oversight with a hands-on instructor is as old as the game of shinny, itself. “He’s fair and demanding,” said Shattenkirk, who played his first two seasons at Boston University while Quinn was an assistant and then played 13 games over two seasons for him as the head man with Lake Erie of the AHL. “He treats players with a lot of respect and he expects you to show up to work every day. He’s constantly going to develop you as a player, which is what we need here. “The only way to [fix things] when your team starts to slip is to practice. It’s good for energy. It’s good for conditioning. That’s what our team needs.”
One can debate whether the Rangers are building from the ground up or whether they are attempting to engineer a no-pain retool in the wake of last season’s roster deconstruction. The discussion, though, is really about semantics. Developing players means developing a winning team, too.
If the likes of second-tier talent Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Brady Skjei, Jimmy Vesey and Hayes can take steps forward, so much the quicker for the process. If the likes of Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Lias Andersson, Tony DeAngelo and Neal Pionk can establish themselves as productive pros under Quinn before the new wave featuring Libor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Brett Howden and the draft class of 2018 arrives, even better.
But just as there will be no short cuts on the ice for the Rangers — “I can only imagine what practice is going to be like,” said Hayes, who spurned Quinn’s recruiting efforts and wound up signing down the road at Boston College — there can be no short cuts to the process by management.
Yes, of course Gorton will seek to fill in gaping holes from the outside through trades and free agency, but it would be a surprise and mistake both for the Blueshirts to leap head-first into the pool and dole out expensive longterm contracts for players on the wrong side of age 28 or short-term deals to journeymen with modest ceilings. Neither seems to be part of the plan, but sometimes the best of intentions in April, May and even June are overturned by the crush of July 1.
Quinn briefly cited concepts including stick and body positioning, angling and closing under the umbrella of defensive structure. He talked about wanting to play a fast game. No one in the NHL talks about wanting to play a slow game. The coach talked about developing relationships and communicating with players. Shattenkirk said he believes that will be among Quinn’s strengths.
“Players are different now,” said the defenseman, who reported that his rehab was on schedule. “They need to be managed differently. You have to know how to communicate with younger guys.”
Quinn referred to accountability. So did Shattenkirk and Hayes. At breakup day, Shattenkirk said there hadn’t been nearly enough peer pressure applied throughout the season and talked about how the dynamic between younger and older players was in need of a reset, with younger guys having to understand that holding veterans accountable was part of the job. Hayes seconded the notion Thursday.
“He holds everyone accountable,” Hayes said of Quinn. “And we need to hold each other accountable, and that means the younger guys holding the older guys accountable, as well. It shouldn’t be just the seven or eight oldest guys doing that. Everyone’s here to win the same thing.”
It’s a new day on Broadway. Accountability, hard work, practice and defensive structure were the bywords of this Thursday on which the charismatic Quinn took command of the stage. Henrik Lundqvist is going to love this guy.