'BLUNT' FORCE
Honesty with trade candidates helps Rangers stay focused
It’s faint praise to commend professional athletes for acting, well, professional. But there is something to be said about the almost joyous mood surrounding the Rangers as they get deeper and deeper into a tumultuous time in the course of this season, if not the course of the rebuilding of the roster.
With the Feb. 25 trade deadline rapidly approaching, and with lineup stalwarts Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello leading the way of players who very well could be dealt, the team practiced Thursday with an unexpected spring in its collective step. In addition to the uncertainty approaching the deadline, the club had returned from Winnipeg at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning after its flight was diverted due to weather trouble. The Rangers then held their famed Casino Night that evening and practiced Thursday before leaving on a late-afternoon flight to Buffalo — where a three-game, six-day road trip starts Friday night.
“I loved our energy today, I loved our mood today,” coach David Quinn said. “I loved our work ethic, balanced with having fun. That was probably as energetic a practice as we’ve had in a long time.”
The laid-back Hayes seems to be taking this whole thing in stride. Unless negotiations between his camp and general manager Jeff Gorton find some new traction — which is to say, any traction — then it seems like the 26-year-old free-agent-to-be is the biggest piece the Blueshirts have going into the deadline. It would be a big gamble to keep him through the deadline and hope he re-signs in the summer, but it might be a risk Gorton is willing to take.
Zuccarello, meanwhile, has cleared his head after a conversation with management just over a month ago. His line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider has carried almost all of the offensive load. Not only has it been the team’s best line but one of the league’s best during this torrid stretch.
It has raised Zuccarello’s value, both externally and internally, which hardly makes the decision to deal him any easier. The same can be said for Hayes, who maybe hasn’t been quite as good since returning from his upper- body injury, but has still been one of the team’s best skaters this season — if not the past three seasons.
“I’ve talked with both those guys about it,” Quinn said. “When you talk through things, I think you feel better about it, whether it’s the answers you want or not. So it certainly hasn’t affected their play, that’s for sure.”
As Quinn noted, “Every team in the league is going through this. Everybody has players that are talked about.”
But not every team reacts in the same way.
Last year, under coach Alain Vigneault, the Rangers began the rebuild in earnest. It was difficult to take for a team that knew little else besides winning — except for winning the grand prize, the Stanley Cup. The club was imploding before “the letter” informing fans of the upcoming rebuild went out Feb. 8, 2018, and that just ignited the fumes.
But this group was ready for it from the beginning of the season, and was taking it as well as could be expected considering the circumstances. With the trip continuing with a Sunday afternoon match against the Penguins, then a trip to face the resurgent Hurricanes on Tuesday night, the games won’t be easy.
So this attitude will be tested, and it will be seen if it stands up under the pressure.
“This time of year — every year — there is always a feeling of, ‘ OK, what’s going to happen?’ There are some big decisions, for sure,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said. “But I think the best thing for us is to focus on [Friday at Buffalo]. We have a challenging road trip coming up. So I think that’s distraction enough for everyone, just to focus on that. That’s the only way, and the best way, for us to be in the right mindset.”