Peter Laviolette Needs To Go Now, Even if This Rangers Season Isn't His Fault
The Rangers' woes aren't just on Laviolette, but his system and player accountability have exacerbated the team's struggles. With the defense faltering and stars like Zibanejad underperforming, the question isn't if, but when, the Rangers move on from their coach. That time should be now.
Peter Laviolette isn't the New York Rangers' biggest problem.
In fact, he isn't their second or even their third biggest problem. Almost all of this team's significant issues originate from the players themselves, as Joe Fortunato recently bombastically, and accurately, explained. Those problems are a melange of on-ice and off-ice issues, from the multi-season long decline of Mika Zibanejad to the roster drama around Jacob Trouba and Barclay Goodrow from over the summer.
USA Today's Vince Mercogliano cataloged the team's problems a couple of weeks ago, putting coaching issues at the bottom of the list:
1. GM should have addressed personnel problems sooner
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) December 14, 2024
2. D-men don’t move pucks well, skate well or defend particularly well
3. Mika has fallen off a cliff and Kreider is MIA at 5v5, making that line a non-factor
4. Forwards don’t forecheck or backcheck with any consistency
5.…
As for GM Chris Drury's responsibility for those issues, or at for least for allowing them to fester too long, I'm not going to argue. I come here neither to praise Drury nor to bury him. The fight about his role in this mess is for another day, largely because if Rangers owner James Dolan hasn't fired him yet, I don't think that move is coming.
But as you work your way through Vince's list, problems that at first are the province of the players also reveal themselves to be coaching issues, or at least are problems that failures of the coaching staff have exacerbated.
