WFAN host, passionate Rangers fan say coach ‘has to go’ after brutal loss to Flames
The New York Rangers’ most recent loss, 2-1 to the Calgary Flames at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night, has been labeled as many things. A no-show performance, unacceptable, shameful.
It was all of those things and so much more. Social media is ablaze with vitriol from angry Rangers fans.
Even WFAN host and passionate Rangers fan Boomer Esiason was fired up after the loss, and he’s pointing his blame at coach Peter Laviolette.
After managing just 13 shots on goal over the course of the game and playing with little-to-no urgency, it’s hard to argue with what Boomer is saying here.
“They seem so disconnected, so disinterested,” Esiason said on his morning show Wednesday. “This coach has got to go … You could tell that the players just, either they don’t give a damn, or something is amiss within the body of the team, has been amiss since they lost last year to the [Florida] Panthers in the playoffs.”
After watching the Rangers’ performance Tuesday, it’s hard to find a better take than this one. There’s nothing that can explain the drastic drop-off by the Rangers ever since winning the President’s Trophy last season. They entered 2024-25 with almost an identical group, got off to a great start, then fell apart.
General manager Chris Drury was forced to make moves, and he made plenty in attempting to reshape this roster, and while there’s been glimpses of what the team can be, there’s still games where it looks like the Rangers have packed it in for the season.
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Rangers move on from woeful defeat: ‘Everything’s been on the table’
So who gets the blame? At some point, the coach needs to answer for his team’s performance, especially after one like Tuesday night. Following the loss, he didn’t have much to say.
“It was not there, there was nothing there,” the coach said. “They were faster than us, they got to the ice quicker than us, they were more ready. That’s the way the game played out.”
It doesn’t seem like much of an answer for a team that lacked urgency and were so badly outplayed by an opponent that got hammered 6-2 the night before in Toronto by the Maple Leafs.
Nonetheless, the focus must shift to the next game. The Rangers have 13 games remaining on the season, and likely need to win most of them if they want a chance to compete in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a fourth straight year.
“We’ve moved on from last night,” Laviolette explained Wednesday after an optional practice. “Everything’s been on the table this morning, so we’re now focusing on the next one. We’ve got to be better, we acknowledge that.”
As the season winds down, it seems like Laviolette’s fate with the Rangers depends on if they make the playoffs. Also interesting to watch going forward is how, if at all, the recent acquisitions are deployed. Players Drury acquired ahead of the trade deadline largely are out of the lineup. How does that sit with the GM?
Look at players like Arthur Kaliyev before his season-ending injury, Juuso Parsinnen, Carson Soucy, Calvin de Haan. All players that Drury felt could help the Rangers make a push for the playoffs, yet they’ve struggled to find playing time. Soucy, in particular, has been a surprise scratch night-in and night-out after arriving from the Vancouver Canucks for a third-round pick.
All of this doubt and finger-pointing can surely subside with a few wins and a playoff berth, but for now and especially after the terrible showing Tuesday, tensions are as high as ever in New York.
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