After a disappointing four-game road trip, the Rangers turned to internal youth to reinvigorate the team, but they were unable to prevent the club from losing their third straight game.
Even before the Blueshirts lost 5-2 to the Blues at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, it was believed by leadership that more drastic changes were needed.
The newspaper reported that president and general manager Chris Drury sent a memo to all 31 of his NHL counterparts announcing that the Rangers would be back in business, specifically their longest-tenured player, Chris Kreider, and their captain. However, he admitted that he had mentioned that multiple players were available. Jacob Trouba.
As first reported by TSN's Elliott Friedman, the Blueshirts have revealed they are looking to shake things up.
Surrendering three games in a row is something the Rangers did only once last season, when they lost four in a row from January 6th to 13th.
Management seemed to already know that a change was needed, even though they didn't have to watch the Rangers lose to a St. Louis team that had lost seven of their past nine games.
Coincidentally, Kreider did not suit up for Monday's game against the Blues. According to the Rangers, Kreider, who is in his 13th season in New York, has been dealing with an upper-body injury.
This, coupled with Filip Sitil continuing his recovery from a non-concussion injury, has led to some major line changes and the AHL calling up Matt Lempe and Brett Berard, who made his NHL debut on Monday night. The door opened for him to be called up to Hartford.
However, the Blues scored two goals within the first eight-and-a-half minutes of the final period to break a 2-2 tie at the start of the third period, but injuries also added to the pressure on the Rangers.
Former Ranger Pavel Buchnevich's empty netter closed out the game.
The only bright spot in the last 48 hours has been Will Quill. He has been a force for the Rangers almost every night since the start of the season.
And the second-year Ranger was active again with his fifth multi-point performance of the season and first multi-goal game of his burgeoning NHL career.
As the tide of the organization began to tilt in favor of a young core, the 22-year-old Quill stepped in to lead the charge. After a quiet start, Quill has been banging the drums lately with consistent, effective play — as if to say, “I'm ready for more.''
The Rangers scored for the first time since the first game of their recent four-game road trip on Nov. 17 in Seattle.
When Quill placed the post in front of the net, Kaapo Kakko sent the puck flying in that direction and it hit Quill's skate, giving him the lead just under nine minutes into the game.
The Blues, skating in their first game under new head coach Jim Montgomery, managed to respond in just under three minutes. Mika Zibanejad's weak pass off the boards was difficult for Trouba to handle before Brayden Schenn brought the Rangers captain down into the puck.
Schenn dished to Jordan Caillou, who took a shot from between the circles to make the score 1-1.
St. Louis took its first lead of the night in the second period, with the visitors converting a neutral zone score back into the Rangers zone, putting the home team in a tight spot. Zach Bolduc then flipped the bouncing puck past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin for his first goal of the season.
But less than three minutes later, Quill first won a contest for the puck, kept it in the Rangers' zone, then found the back of the net and buried his second goal of the night on a feed from Zibanejad. .
Quill attacked the net so hard that he had to jump on top of the net after the puck went in to stop it.
