Rangers vs. Predators: Smashed in Smashville
A change is gonna come to these Rangers, as they once again drop a game to the worst team in the National Hockey League.
- I have a very good friend who lives in Nashville. When the NHL schedule came out he invited me and a mutual friend of ours, also a Rangers fan, to come to Nashville for this game. With no offense meant to him for the kind invitation, I'm glad I didn't go see ::gestures in disgust:: that game.
- Let's again start with what happened before the game. Practice once again revealed new lines as Artemi Panarin remains out with an upper body injury. Kreider was off the 4th line and up with Vincent Trocheck and Brett Berard. Urho Vaakanainen slotted in on the third pair for his first game as a Rangers after being acquired in the Jacob Trouba deal. And while Adam Fox and Zac Jones had practiced together as the top pair, when it came around to game time, Fox was once again stapled to Ryan Lindgren. I mean, why try something new, right? It's not like you'd lost 10 of your last 13 games coming into this one. Oh, wait.
- And then there's Kaapo Kakko. He was back in, on the purported third line with Mika Zibanejad and Reilly Smith. After practice he talked to the beat reporters about his healthy scratch in the last game against St. Louis:
Full #NYR Kaapo Kakko quote when I asked if he was surprised:
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) December 17, 2024
“I was surprised, yeah. I know you got to do something as a coach when you’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to pick a young guy and boot him out. That’s how I feel, to be honest.”
Does Kaapo Kakko need to talk to #NYR before he goes back in to see what they want from him?
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) December 17, 2024
“I’m not going to do that,” he said. “They’re going to say if they have something to say, but I’m not going there.”
No. 24 was as dejected as I’ve ever seen him.
- As Joe pointed out, this is exactly what happened back in the day with Alain Vigneault and Pavel Buchnevich, when AV would yank Buch out of the line up but wouldn't talk to him about it beyond curt and obtuse hockey speak like, "be harder on the puck." This led, in part, to Chris Drury committing the original sin of his time as Rangers GM, shipping Buchnevich to St. Louis and creating the hole at RW1 that he's never been able to fill, while Buchnevich turned into an elite top line winger with the Blues. At some point, you'd think this team would recognize it has issues with properly developing young talent and would do something about it. You'd think that, wouldn't you?
