Ryan Callahan's comments are to me the most telling.
By Larry Brooks
Published Dec. 5, 2024, 7:35 p.m. ET
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Rangers center Matt Rempe (73) at training camp.
Rangers center Matt Rempe (73) at training camp.
Robert Sabo for NY Post
Regarding the Rangers, who somehow have come through this week intact ahead of Friday’s Garden match against the Penguins:
1. Among other issues, this is one of the most vanilla teams I have ever been around. The team has essentially no personality. Playing against them is kind of like a day in the park.
It kind of reminds me of the 2006-07 Rangers … before Sean Avery came to town and changed pretty much everything about that.
The most confounding aspect of the year is the organizational denial of the impact Matt Rempe had on the Rangers — not in 2006-07 but last year.
When No. 73 joined the team in mid-February, he changed the dynamic, he changed the energy, he changed the perception of the Rangers, who went 14-2-1 with him in the lineup and 6-0 in the playoffs before head coach Peter Laviolette lost faith in the team’s ability to win with him even though they had won 20 of the 23 games in which he played.
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Rempe was never even given a chance to keep his spot in the lineup, let alone a spot on the roster, when this season commenced. It was nonsensical then and nonsensical now. Calling Rempe “a mascot,” as some like to do, is not only offensive but ignorant.
We are told that GM Chris Drury was in Hartford, Conn., on Wednesday for the Wolf Pack’s 6-1 victory over Bridgeport, in which Rempe scored his third goal of the year on a deflection in front and Victor Mancini recorded three assists.
This is the time for both Rempe and Mancini to be in New York, but not if Laviolette won’t play them. Pardon my ignorance, but I can’t imagine what he would have to lose. This has to be Laviolette’s decision. Except for those instances when a team is showcasing a player for trade, the head coach must control the lineup. Otherwise, he has been given an excuse.
Rangers center Matt Rempe #73 checks St. Louis Blues left wing Dylan Holloway #81
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Rangers center Matt Rempe #73 checks St. Louis Blues left wing Dylan Holloway #81.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
But honestly, there is no excuse for Rempe not to be here and on the right side of the fourth line. You may have noticed that this is not the first time I have said this. Likely, it will not be the last.
2. We are told by industry sources that Drury has been engaged in conversations with multiple teams this week while gauging interest in Blueshirts’ personnel.
The notion that this is the wrong time to try to make a trade is foolish. Multiple general managers need to make changes.
Nashville has won seven of its first 26 games (7-13-6) after lavishing a sum of $108.5 million on free agents Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei and Jonathan Marchessault on July 1. The season has been a catastrophe. You don’t think GM Barry Trotz wants to do something?
I would find out whether Stamkos, who has a no-move, is happy there or maybe he would want out. You acquire Stamkos, working on a four-year contract on an $8M per cap hit, and there you have the captain of the New York Rangers.
Buffalo, winner of 11 of 25 (11-12-2) and in jeopardy of a 14th straight playoff miss, needs to make changes. Detroit, winner of 10 of 25 (10-11-4) and in danger of a ninth straight miss, needs to make changes. Ottawa, winner of 10 of 24 (10-12-2) and out for the last seven years, wants to make changes. Utah, winner of 10 of 25 (10-11-4), needs to make changes.
Steven Stamkos #91 of the Nashville Predators looks on.
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Steven Stamkos #91 of the Nashville Predators looks on.
Getty Images
But, somehow, Drury should have known that this isn’t the time for trades.
Give me a break.
3. Here it is again, with multiple sources confirming that the market for Jacob Trouba is chilled, largely because teams are not enthusiastic about trading for a player who has made it clear that he will be unhappy to be anywhere except New York.
Trouba has the right to send that message through whatever indirect means. But the Rangers do not have to enable this. It is unbecoming.
Rangers Jacob Trouba on the ice against the Canadiens.
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Rangers Jacob Trouba on the ice against the Canadiens.
JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
4. Something to keep in mind: Drury’s Substack message came after the Rangers were no-shows in consecutive first periods, 24 hours apart, in Calgary and Edmonton, respectively, outshot 20-5 and 21-9, respectively.
Should he have waited for another debacle? For another week? Or should the GM just have held all of the players’ hands?
5. Attitude, schmattitude, but if the Rangers do not defend the middle of the ice and cannot take time and space away from the opposition, they will have no chance.
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Phil Housley, Hall of Fame defenseman running the defense, come on down.
6. A former player might have more empathy for the Rangers than I do in the wake of the memo and the ensuing turmoil that has engulfed the team.
So let’s hear what one-time Rangers captain Ryan Callahan — traded while wearing the “C” because of a contract impasse — had to say in his role as an ESPN analyst this week.
What do you think? Be the first to comment.
“So at that point, I’m expecting the team to respond, have a response [to the memo] in a positive way,” No. 24 said a night after the Blueshirts were rolled 5-1 by the Devils at the Garden. “I saw a lack of emotion, lack of energy, lack of effort.”
Hmm.
Matt Rempe is the Rangers’ readily available fix for their blandness problem - ( New Window )
