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 Saturday night’s defeat against the Penguins that rocked the world of the franchise and anything but certainly the ended No. 77’s Broadway run.
Mark Messier, Vic Hadfield, Barry Beck, Ron Greschner and Ryan Callahan could all have worn the jersey and the “C” on Saturday and they couldn’t have prevented the spontaneous combustion that occurred.
But I do believe that the Rangers, who seem to be dealing with all kinds of issues as they struggle to find balance outside the gate and restore the positive 2019-20 vibes they’ve apparently left in the Toronto bubble, are a captain need. I think they need an identifiable leader within the leadership group.
And right now, there’s no better man for the job than Chris Kreider, who has emerged as the voice of the team in his 10th year with the organization.
Ahead of the season, the hierarchy concluded with President John Davidson, general manager Jeff Gorton, head coach David Quinn and assistant GM Chris Drury that the team would benefit from going with four deputies instead of one captain. That implied that the group didn’t believe Kreider or presumptive lead candidate Mika Zibanejad were the right fit.
With that in mind, I suggested a few weeks ago that Jacob Trouba would be a logical candidate to fill the post from next season. That came in the wake of the defender being praised by Quinn for his work in the room following the 4-0 debacle on the opening night of a defeat to the islanders.
That was just over two weeks ago, even though it seems like a decade has passed since then. The good Ship Ranger has been leaking one after another and is in danger of becoming the SS Minnow. Naturally, the coach is ultimately held responsible for the fate of the ship. But a strong and distinctive first mate will also be needed.
And that would be Kreider, who has kept blue blood running through his veins since joining the Rangers at the start of the 2012 playoffs, just days away from the BC Chestnut Hill campus.
There may have been concerns from management – there must have been No. 20’s formative years – that Kreider internalizes too much, worries too much, and that the captain would become a burden to him.
But the growth of Kreider’s stature has been steady, even though the consistency on the ice remains elusive. Saturday, visibly upset (and now we know why there was reason to be, beyond the outcome) over the Zoom call with the media, Kreider called on the team for his sad performance by letting a new third period lead escape .
This was not Kreider in his locker speaking softly to an individual journalist to get the message across. This was Kreider using his platform to tell his teammates it just wasn’t good enough. And if you know Kreider, it is almost certain that he sent that message right before he shot it into cyberspace, where it will stay for all eternity or until the cloud is full.
It’s one thing to have four deputies in Zibanejad, Kreider, Trouba and Artemi Panarin, but if there is one captain, he becomes the only person responsible for setting the bar. He becomes the player responsible for confronting teammates when the effort is not good enough.
There have been all sorts of wild stories circulating on the internet over the past two days about DeAngelo and his supposedly sick relationship with K’Andre Miller. Countless people have told us that nothing is wrong and instead inventions that fit a story.
The Rangers are expected to vigorously refute these stories at a press conference ahead of Monday’s rematch at the Garden against the Penguins. Professional sports teams generally tend to circle the wagons in cases such as these, but it would be fitting for Davidson and the hierarchy to provide as much transparency here as possible to counter stories that start to win money.
(In addition, there are stories circulating that Kreider punched DeAngelo in the face after the initial confusion was broken by Miller, as The Post reported Monday morning. That’s just not true, according to several people with knowledge of the situation.)
A young team with a still young coach in the NHL experience is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. Goal tending was shaky. The structure is transient. This was the reason for the forced departure of one of the most important assets of last season.
The Rangers need a leader. They need a captain.
Call Kid K.
I call Chris Kreider.