Vincent Trocheck denies rumors Rangers voiced frustration with GM in players-only meeting
When a stretch of multiple losses starts derailing a season, it can cause plenty of frustration for any team. It’s no different for the struggling New York Rangers, who are trying to figure out their issues while denying rumors that they want the general manager dismissed.
The Rangers have dropped to 15-15-1 after a slump that has seen them go 3-11-0 in their past 14 games. They’ve dropped to 11th in the Eastern Conference and are sixth in the Metropolitan Division.
New York has made two moves in December. The Rangers sent captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 6 and traded forward Kaapo Kakko to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday. The return? Two bottom-pair defensemen and three picks in next June’s NHL Draft — none of them before the third round.
Frustration has permeated the team.
However, a players-only meeting held behind closed doors following an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 14 garnered attention on social media as reports came out regarding the topics that were discussed. According to the rumors, Rangers players don’t have a problem with coach Peter Laviolette — but they do have an issue with president and general manager Chris Drury because of how he handled the situation with Trouba, after a similar heavy-handed dealing of Barclay Goodrow’s exit last summer.
But Vincent Trocheck, one of the Rangers four alternate captains, set the record straight on Thursday, relating to the media what was discussed at the meeting.
“That could not be further than the truth. If we have a closed-door meeting, with just the players, I think the last thing that we’d do is complain about our general manager,” Trocheck said, per Mollie Walker of the New York Post.
“When we have closed-door meetings in here, it’s about us. It’s about what we can do. Obviously, we’re in a little bit of a hole right now, and it’s about what we can do to get out of it. It has nothing to do with management. They do their job. Chris is doing his job to try to put the best players on the ice to succeed.”
Trocheck further took blame off the GM’s shoulders.
“We are those players, and we have to go out there and preform. Do we what can to succeed. I just wanted to clear the air on that. Obviously, there’s a lot of stuff circulating our team right now and when I see something like that, I don’t know where it even comes from. That kind of frustrated me.”
Related:
Chris Drury meets with Rangers after Kaapo Kakko trade
Drury met with all players one-on-one Thursday in Dallas prior to addressing the team as a whole for the first time since the slump that has sent them back to NHL .500 (15-15-1), according to Walker. Laviolette said afterward that the Rangers seem to be coming together and enjoyed a high-tempo practice that ended with a full-team shootout. The Rangers will try to end a three-game losing streak when they face the Stars at American Airlines Center on Friday night.
“It was good,” the coach said. “Guys get out there and they work. You get into it, and everybody’s got to find a way to break through this. Having a practice like that, maybe a little bit lighter, an opportunity to just go out and play, get back to it. The best remedy for all of it is winning, and we got to start that [Friday night].”
The Rangers scored 61 goals in the first 17 games when they were 12-4-1, an average of 3.58 per game. During their 14-game slide they’ve scored 31 goals (2.21 per game) and been torched for 52 goals against (3.71 per game). Entering Thursday, they were 22nd in goals scored and 15th in goals allowed.
The game in Dallas begins a stretch that will see the Rangers play three of the top-12 NHL teams (the Stars, Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils) in the four days before the Christmas break begins on Dec. 24. They have to solve their issues on both ends of the rink before they fall too far behind in the playoff race while adapting to the personnel moves Drury has made this month.
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