DALLAS — When a team, especially a New York team, falls into disaster, the search for the cause is rampant.
The Blueshirts are looking for their own answers.
Everyone from the players to the coaching staff to the hierarchy.
There may be no way to sum it all up, but all President and General Manager Chris Drury has left to do is start working toward possible solutions.
A common thread in the team's problems was a poor locker room, where two disappointed players, Jacob Trouba (Anaheim) and Kaapo Kakko (Seattle), were partially sidelined due to uniform issues. are forced to do so. How head coach Peter Laviolette and Drury fared during this notable downfall.
And with the Kakko trade completed on Wednesday, Matt Lempe was also recalled from AHL Hartford.
Now, neither Will Borgen, the lowest-ranking defenseman the Rangers acquired along with two 2025 draft picks in the Kakko deal with the Kraken, nor Rempe will be a savior.
However, this is the start of rebuilding a lineup whose flaws have been hidden for a long time, but are now being exposed.
There is more misinformation surrounding the Rangers than concrete reports.
There are some enthusiasts who want to chronicle the downfall of the Rangers by gathering every juicy rumor they can get their hands on.
Yes, Sean Avery will be heading to New York, a place the former Rangers firebrand gushes about in his book Ice Capades.
He is planning to see a concert by the band Phish at Madison Square Garden next weekend.
No, there is no evidence that the 44-year-old is in line for any sort of executive job at Rangers.
As has been reported numerous times in this area, there is currently no indication that changes are being considered behind the bench or in the management team.
This became more of a war in the Rangers' minds than anything else.
Every day it seems like another negative headline creeps into the team's psyche and confuses them further.
The fact that a significant portion of that had nothing to do with disappointing on-ice performance clearly weighs even more heavily on the locker room.
“Everything is mental at this point,” manager Braden Schneider said after the Rangers suffered their second loss to a last-place team in nine days. “We want to do the right thing and we strive to do the right thing, but we're just a little bit off the mark. It's a little off base. Everyone here believes and no one I know that everyone is working for the right thing.
“We have to keep pushing forward and hopefully we can go through the roof.”
The real question here is where did the Rangers' mental strength go?
Just last season, this team was a team that solved every game in front of them.
They overcame every challenge, no matter the size, never backed down from anyone, and never thought they would be out of a game no matter how big or small they were behind.
Now, the Rangers collapse at the first sign of adversity.
The team folded like a lawn chair after Drury's league-wide trade memo specifically named Rangers captain Jacob Trouba and longest-tenured player Chris Kreider.
One bad goal or one bad play can cause a complete and utter collapse.
These days, turnovers end up behind the goal 10 out of 10 times.
This 3-11 failure became a self-fulfilling prophecy that the Rangers never seem to shake.
What was once one of their greatest assets has languished.
The only way to silence the noise is to look at the standings.
The Rangers know this, as does the rest of the National Hockey League.
Until then, everyone will be trying to figure out the ins and outs of the Rangers' decline.
They are in control of their own destiny, not what outsiders tell them.
