New-look Rangers drop the puck
It seems like just about everything is new except the logo.
The Rangers will open the 2017-18 season on Thursday night at the Garden against the Predators in unfamiliar territory, with an unfamiliar coach, some unfamiliar alternate captains, a lot of unfamiliar players and unfamiliar expectations.
This team is not supposed to be a shoo-in for the playoffs, like so many of the past decade. It is supposed to be a team that has a puncher’s chance of making the playoffs, and even that might be undercut by another trade deadline best served by trading away some rentals. It is different, for sure, and even the players in the locker room can feel it.
“I remember there were definitely a bunch of years when you went into the season and the goal was crystal clear. You wanted to win, you wanted to be at the top,” said one of the few mainstays, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, after the final preseason practice on Wednesday up in Westchester.
“I think now the mindset is, ‘How good can we be? Let’s really push it here and try to get into the playoffs.’
I think that’s a realistic mindset, a healthy mindset. It’s a good challenge for this group.”
It’s going to be such a challenge because of the changes that have taken place, which start with the man behind the bench, David Quinn. Despite being a NHL assistant coach previously — along with an AHL head coach and head coach at Boston University — he is still set to make his debut as a NHL head coach. On the eve of that debut, the 52-year-old Quinn sounded like a giddy schoolboy.
“Listen, I’m human,” Quinn said. “I’m coaching my first NHL hockey game [Thursday] night in Madison Square Garden, coaching the New York Rangers. So I’m probably as excited as you’d think I would be.”
In the absence of a holdover leadership group, Quinn announced there would not be a single captain but five alternate captains for the season — Marc Staal, who will wear the ‘A’ for all 82 games; Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad for home games; and Jesper Fast and Chris Kreider for road games. This is a very different team from the ones captained by Ryan Callahan or Ryan McDonagh, squads that had their sights directly set on only one goal — winning the Stanley Cup.
“Expectations might be different, but your personal mindset going into the game, into the season, it doesn’t really change,” Lundqvist said. “You’re worried about your own performance and what you can bring to the table for this team, and that doesn’t change — how you prepare, how you play, how you focus during the game. I think the expectations around us might be a little different this year, and that’s fine.”
Some coaches might use that outside perception as motivation, and Quinn seemed to touch on that idea without driving it home.
“It’s an exciting time because when people from the outside don’t think you’re going to be very good, I think we [as] professionals, there’s a little ‘We’ll show them’ attitude, no matter what team is projected to not have a great season,” Quinn said. “I don’t think we’re any different.”
What is different is the team, and the way it’s expecting to play. As opposed to coach Alain Vigneault before him, Quinn wants his Rangers to be tighter in the defensive zone, protecting the front of the net and supporting each other when they get beat. He still wants them to play fast and to be offensively creative, but it’s going to be a lot more straightforward hockey than in years past.
“We’ve liked our practices, we think we’ve been coachable, we think we’ve worked hard — but we’re going to find out,” Quinn said.
Or, as Quinn has said for the past two days, “The honeymoon is over. We’re going to find out where we’re really at [Thursday] night.”