The Rangers were steamrolled by the rival Devils on Monday night, falling behind 2-0 in the first seven minutes of play in an eventual 5-1 defeat at Madison Square Garden.
It was New York’s sixth regulation loss in its last seven games, with the team’s lone win coming on a last-minute goal against the last-place Canadiens. Amid reports that Rangers brass is considering moving key core pieces like Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, Chris McMonigle says changes are needed, but might not be possible.
“This Ranger team is just flat-out awful right now. They are playing uninspired hockey,” C-Mac said. “They have real problems with defense, with [Mika] Zibanejad...they just don’t look anything like they did last year. This core is a major problem, and you’ve seen, they know it. Chris Drury is out there trying to move the core, and reports are, it’s gonna be very difficult.
“Peter Laviolette said the answers are in the room. Well, they better be, because I don’t know if the room is changing right now. They just look soft.”
New York is fading fast, and C-Mac doesn’t see how things get better unless the players in the locker room start to play better, because he doesn’t see trades being plausible given how undesirable Kreider and especially Trouba look right now.
“It just feels like they’re not up for a hard-nosed style of play, an aggressive nature of play, that you can play against this talented, soft, hockey team,” C-Mac said. “We’ve seen guys like Panarin unable to perform when he gets in those type of series.”