“Players aren’t dumb”: NHL analyst issues hot take on NY Rangers’ ‘wasted energy’ amid struggling season

The New York Rangers had a strong postseason in 2023-24. This season, they are seventh in the Metropolitan division and have the fourth-fewest fewer points in the NHL.

Hockey insider Gord Stellick joined the "Real Kyper and Bourne" podcast on Monday and discussed what has gone wrong with New York, and he believes it could be due to not having much going on.

The Rangers have a lot of outside noise, including who is or isn't going to be dealt at the trade deadline. Stellick said that isn't helping them focus on getting better.

"You got to suck it up regardless what's going on," Stellick said (1:22:30). "But when he talks about something between the general manager and coach, that's serious, and it happens, and it makes it big time, dysfunctional, and players aren't dumb, and they read about that."

He added that it's a cop-out to blame the dysfunction entirely on that even if they were good last year and haven't come close to matching that form this season.

"When you don't have a, you know, they're like, you know, all for one, one for all, you don't trust what management's doing, you know, whatever," Stellicks said. "You're suspicious all that stuff that's wasted energy, that's, you know, where you want to focus everything on a common goal."

The Rangers briefly dipped into last place, but a dominant 6-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday pushed them up the standings.

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Disaster strikes NY Rangers again

Things have not gone according to plan for the New York Rangers this year. They have been inexplicably bad and they've had some major injuries to contend with. Igor Shesterkin is not playing, and he is one of the best goalies in the NHL.

Chris Kreider is on IR now (Imagn)

Chris Kreider joined him on Injured Reserve retroactive to Sunday. He is dealing with an upper-body injury and he could be out for an extended period. Kreider is a veteran who has struggled this year and he ended up being named as a possible trade candidate by the team's general manager.

He has suffered another setback and won't even be on the ice to try and turn things around for the struggling Rangers.