New York Rangers' Closed-Door Meeting the Spark the Whole Team Needs

NEW YORK — Dan Girardi shares a wall with Marc Staal in the New York Rangers’ locker room, as the two have been teammates since 2007 and stall neighbors for several years.

So when Girardi saw the media gathering around Staal to talk with the defenseman about his team’s strangely convincing 5-0 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, Girardi had some playful comments for the gathering hoard of reporters.

“None of you had us winning, did you?”

No, Daniel, we most certainly did not.

The Rangers looked like a tired, disjointed team over the weekend, icing three AHL defensemen in a 5-4 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and having a thoroughly unimpressive showing in a 3-1 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday. 

After looking particularly overmatched against an Oilers team that lacked Taylor Hall, the Rangers took a few minutes to talk about their problems before opening the locker room to the media. 

The specifics are unavailable, but the general problem for the players and coaching staff was a lack of effort and an obvious absence of energy against two teams the Rangers feel they should beat on a consistent basis. 

It’s fair to say whatever was said in that oval room Sunday night paid immediate, if not surprising, dividends two nights later.

“Not one guy in this room was happy or was going to accept the way we played last game,” Staal said. “We wanted to respond. I thought our energy level, our emotion on the bench throughout the game, everyone was engaged, and that’s when we started rolling.”

Rangers assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson was quoted during the second intermission Sunday by MSG locker-room reporter John Giannone as saying, “We are not competing at a level we need to. We are getting crushed by Edmonton in our building, and that is embarrassing.” 

Question a coach who believes it’s embarrassing to be trailing 2-1 in the second half of a back-to-back to a team that was 5-4-0 in its last nine games all you want, because you should, but the message was clear—the Rangers were playing at an unacceptable level.

On Tuesday, Staal said players weren’t upset with the team’s compete level, that no one believed the “try” and all those things coaches and front-office guys love to wax poetic about were absent—it was that the team lacked belief in itself, which seems like a far scarier proposition for long-term success than anything having to do with giving it their all.

“It wasn’t so much the effort part,” Staal said. “Obviously, we weren’t excited about the way we played. It just seemed like everyone was out of gas; we were slow, and it wasn’t working. We talked a lot more about confidence. Starting in our end, the biggest thing is, when we are very good in our end, we’re jumping to pucks and breaking out quick; we’re able to tire teams out, like Edmonton did to us that game. 

“When we’re making good plays through the neutral zone and smart plays and confident passes, we’re a lot more dangerous team to play.” 

Jared Silber/Getty Images

Confidence can be a fragile thing, especially for a team openly discussing it in November. It’s what makes the play by Tanner Glass in the first period, when the game was still 0-0, such a big moment, but one that can be easily forgotten in a blowout. 

The puck slithered through Henrik Lundqvist and toward a gaping net, a sure Penguins goal if it continued on its path. But Glass, backchecking with lots of effort, lots of confidence, got there in time to stifle the puck’s momentum and push it out of harm’s way.

The Rangers scored the game’s first goal about a minute later, a laser through a screen by Mats Zuccarello and never looked back.

Considering the shaky psyche of the Rangers, a team that held a closed-door meeting after its 13th game of the season, it’s not a leap to say this game could have turned out far differently if the Penguins had struck a blow to the Rangers’ confidence in that moment. 

“That was a game changer,” said Brassard, whose power-play goal in the second period ended the Penguins’ streak of 39 consecutive kills. “Tanner made a big play. Our coaches are always on us to come back and help out, and he didn’t quit on that play and grabbed that puck.

“If they score that goal, it’s 1-0 for them, and it’s a totally different game.”

Confidence is the issue of the moment; consistency has been the issue of the season for the Rangers.

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

They beat the St. Louis Blues in the opener and then dropped three straight. They pick themselves up off the mat to win three in a row, lay an egg in Montreal and then get drubbed for two periods by the Minnesota Wild before scoring five third-period goals to steal a victory at MSG. 

After that potentially season-changing win, a wake-up call, the Rangers embarked on a 1-2-2 stretch that ended with a walloping of the Penguins.

Is the up-and-down nature of the defending Eastern Conference champions a systemic problem, one that will linger all season? Or is it the result of the loss of so many key players to injury (and one suspension) that’s preventing them maintaining a steady level of play? 

That answer should become more evident in the coming weeks, as Derek Stepan is back after missing the first six weeks with a fractured foot, defenseman John Moore has returned from a five-game suspension for trying to "dislodge the brain" of Wild forward Erik Haula from his skull and defenseman Dan Boyle could be back this week after breaking his hand in the first game of the season.

Captain Ryan McDonagh, the team’s No. 1 defenseman and perhaps one of the 10 best at his position in the league, won’t be back from a shoulder injury until December.

Despite all this uneven play, if it’s the result of injuries and icing the likes of AHL defenseman Michael Kostka, Matt Hunwick and Conor Allen on a regular basis or not, the Rangers are keeping their heads above water in the possession game; they rank 13th in Fenwick close, according to stats.hockeyanalysis.com, at 50.9 percent. 

“Losing three defensemen, that’s not going to help you,” Lundqvist said of finding consistency. “That’s a big change. I think it’s more just being on the same page. We just need to be on the same page in our end, like tonight.”

Logic dictates that the Rangers shouldn’t have any trouble Thursday when the Colorado Avalanche come to town. After all, the Rangers just blanked a team that was averaging 4.38 goals per game and will next face one that is 4-8-5 and coming off a 6-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

A loss Thursday will open the door to more questions about confidence and consistency or a lack thereof.

“We know what kind of team we are,” Staal said. “We just have to get the confidence to play like that consistently. It’s a good start for it tonight.” 

All statistics via NHL.com and stats.hockeyanalysis.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.