I’m not going to draw a straight line between the absence of a captain and the Dust-Up in the tunnel between Tony DeAngelo and Alex Georgiev after the defeat of Saturday night’s overtime against the Penguins, which has shaken the world of the franchise and has certainly signaled the end. of Broadway number 77.
Mark Messier, Vic Hadfield, Barry Beck, Ron Greschner and Ryan Callahan could have worn the jersey and the “C” on Saturday and could not have avoided the spontaneous combustion that occurred.
But I think the Rangers, who seem to be dealing with all sorts of problems as they struggle to find balance outside the door and regain the positive vibes of 2019-20 that they apparently left in the Toronto bubble, need a captain. I think they need an identifiable leader among the leadership group.
And right now, there’s no better man for the job than Chris Kreider, who in his tenth year with the organization has become the voice of the team.
Prior to the season, the hierarchy that included President John Davidson, general manager Jeff Gorton, head coach David Quinn and assistant general Chris Drury concluded that the team would benefit from going with four alternates instead. of a captain. This meant that the group did not believe that Kreider or the alleged leading candidate Mika Zibanejad were suitable.
With that in mind, a couple of weeks ago I suggested that Jacob Trouba would be the logical candidate to fill the position starting next season. This came after the defender had been praised by Quinn for his work in the room after the inaugural 4-0 debacle on the opening night of a defeat against the Islanders.
It was just over two weeks ago, though it looks like a decade has passed since then. Good Ship Ranger has been leaking one after another and is in danger of becoming SS Minnow. Of course, the coach will ultimately be responsible for the destination of the ship. But a strong and distinguishable first partner will also be needed.
And that would be Kreider, who has been bleeding blue in his veins since joining the Rangers at the start of the 2012 playoffs just a couple of days away from the BC Chestnut Hill campus.
There may be concerns for the management (no doubt 20 years of training had passed) that Kreider internalizes too much, worries too much, and that the captaincy will become a burden for him.
But Kreider’s size growth has been steady, even if the consistency on the ice remains hard to find. On Saturday, visibly annoyed (and now we know why there were reasons to be, beyond the result) at the Zoom call with the media, Kreider summoned the team for his downward performance by letting him escape another advantage of the third period.
It wasn’t Kreider talking softly to a journalist individually in order to get the message across. Kreider used his platform to tell his teammates that he has not been good enough. And knowing Kreider, it’s almost certain that he sent this message directly before launching it into cyberspace, where it will remain for all eternity or until the cloud is full.
It’s one thing to have four substitutes in Zibanejad, Kreider, Trouba and Artemi Panarin, but if there’s a captain, he becomes the only individual responsible for setting the bar. He becomes the player responsible for facing teammates if the effort is not good enough.
There have been all sorts of wild stories circulating on the internet the last two days about DeAngelo and his supposedly sick relationship with K’Andre Miller. Numerous individuals have told us that there is nothing for them but inventions that fit a narrative.
The Rangers are expected to vigorously refute these stories during a press session ahead of Monday’s rematch in the garden against the penguins. Teams from all professional sports usually surround the wagons in cases like these, but it would be up to Davidson and the hierarchy to provide as much transparency as possible to counter stories that have begun to make money.
(In addition, there are rumors circulating that Kreider punched DeAngelo after Miller broke the initial embryo, The Post reported Monday morning. That’s not true, according to several people with knowledge of the situation).
A young team with a still young NHL coach is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. The goal has been unstable. The structure has been transient. Now this, causing the forced departure of one of the most important assets of last season.
The Rangers need a leader. They need a captain.
Calling Kid K.
Call Chris Kreider.