New York Rangers 2023-24 Season Rant

 So far this season has turned out to be excellent and the Rangers have been first in the NHL in the standings for many days on and off as the Bruins and other teams keep fighting for the top spot in the league.  These are the current standings as of today:


Here is my assessment of what the Rangers have gone through with the coaching changes over the last several years and why they haven't won a Stanley Cup, despite having extremely successful regular seasons and 4 highly successful playoff runs including once Finals appearance which ended up as a loss to the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games, after the Rangers had lead by 2 goals in 4 of those 5 games and lost 3 of them which was their ultimate downfall in the series. 

Tom Renney  - Not one of the all time greatest coaches but definitely not a bad coach, he helped the Rangers end their 7 year playoff drought lead by Jaromir Jagr and the Czech line and rookie Henrik Lundqvist who emerged after starting goaltender Kevin Weekes went down early in the 2005-06 season with a lower body injury.  However, this team never got passed the 2nd round and did not have much young talent that lived up to expectations and the great veteran talent in Rucinsky, Straka and Nylander lead by Jagr was just not enough but they made the Rangers relevant again and brought them back into the playoff discussion. 

John Tortorella

 aka "Torts" - too much shot blocking, leading to injuries and banging players up, not quite  enough super star talent on defense or offense, and had issues with reporters such as the legendary Larry Brooks who is one of the most distinguished journalists who reports on NY Rangers hockey and was quite disrespectful to him.  This and his very tough, and being hard on players and not a "players coach" attitude and losing in a big upset to the NJ Devils in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals when they were very much favored lead to the end of his tenure, but he has had success as coach of other teams and is a great coach to help build a young team up and teach them discipline and respect for the game. 

Alain Vigneault

aka "AV" - too much turtling after getting leads and then blowing the leads and losing the game, this is what he will be remembered for by Rangers fans, as I've talked to hundreds who all say this exact same thing.

David Quinn  - Was brought in mainly to help develop younger players bc he had great success at Boston College as a coach and was actually a great hockey coach, but maybe not ready for the NHL to be a cup winner just yet, he's still young.

Gerard Gallant - Hard to determine why he keeps getting fired but it must be something locker room related, inside the team and internal issues, because the performance on the ice was not an issue.  I enjoyed him as NY Rangers coach, one of the biggest complaints I constantly heard from Ranger fans was that he switched up the lines too often and did not allow the potential chemistry needed to flourish. Personally, I liked him.  But I am very happy having our new coach Peter Laviolette now who has won a Cup and been to the finals several times.