Former Rangers coach explains why last season was ‘much tougher battle’
The New York Rangers are on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs for the second straight season. With 10 games remaining, they trail the New York Islanders by 20 points for the second Eastern Conference wild card.
Do the math. It’s not pretty for the Rangers, last.
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Of course, that fate became inevitable long before a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Monday, when the Rangers managed just 10 shots in Mika Zibanejad’s 1,000th career NHL game.
General manager Chris Drury fired defenseman Carson Soucy and star winger Artemi Panarin before the Olympic break and dealt center Sam Carrick just before the March 6 trade deadline — all part of New York’s decision to adopt a new tool, as announced in a Jan. 16 letter.
The Blueshirts showed new life after the Milan-Cortina Olympics, earning points in eight of nine games, including their first four-game winning streak since October 2024. That spark was short-lived. New York followed up the winning streak with five consecutive defeats (0-4-1), falling to the second worst record in the League with 65 points (28-34-9).
Former Rangers coach Peter Laviolette knows a thing or two about ending an unsuccessful campaign. He most recently experienced this last season before being fired after two seasons on Broadway.
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“There are a lot of things that become apparent at some point in the season,” Laviolette said last week on the Tri-State Hockey podcast. “Even if you’re not eliminated, it would be miraculous for anyone who is 12 or 15 points ahead at this point to make the playoffs. Even if it’s not mathematically finished, it’s almost impossible – 99.9 percent it’s not going to happen.”
The Rangers may not be fighting for a playoff spot, but the final three weeks of the season are not without consequences. New York’s main priority is seasoning its young talent, including 2023 first-round pick Gabe Perreault.
“It’s about looking in the mirror, blocking out the noise and playing hard,” Laviolette explained. “Those situations are tough. It was tough the second year when I was there, and we’re always trying to push toward the end for a playoff spot.”
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The 2024-25 Rangers fell six points short of a wild card berth in Laviolette’s second season, becoming the fourth team in NHL history to miss the playoffs after winning the Presidents’ Trophy the previous year.
“Every year is different. There’s no doubt that one year is not the same as the next, and you have to work every year to be the team you want to be,” Laviolette said. “And if you don’t, you find yourself falling down the rankings and you can head down the ladder pretty quickly.”
Laviolette led the 2023-24 Rangers to a franchise record 55 wins and 114 points in his first season at the helm. New York reached the Eastern Conference Finals, losing in six games to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers.
Things quickly got worse the following season, amid locker room unrest and a sharp decline in production across the board.
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“I thought we did a really good job of just working to become a team, playing hard for each other in that first year, and then there was a lot of change,” he continued. “There were some things that definitely changed inside the room. I’m not necessarily sure it was exactly from the room, but there was just some noise around our team, and things changed a little bit. For me, it was a much tougher battle the second year.”
That noise stems from Drury’s decision to waive alternate captain Barclay Goodrow during the 2024 offseason, a failed attempt to trade captain Jacob Trouba that summer — which ultimately resulted in a December trade that sent him to the Anaheim Ducks — and a memo sent to opposing general managers floating the longest-tenured Blueshirt, Chris Kreider, as a potential trade asset.
Workforce renewal continued in 2025-2026. Drury dealt Kreider to the Ducks in the 2025 offseason and traded New York’s leading scorer Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings in February.
Peter Laviolette explains how Rangers can create ‘culture’ during a losing season
Wendell Cruz Imagn Images
Resurrecting a failing team culture is easier said than done.
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“To try to describe what culture is, someone explained it to me one day in order to understand it a little better,” Laviolette said. “You have to talk about it. You have to communicate it within your team.
“I think there are things you talk about before a season, about what you want to be and how you want to be perceived, not only on the ice but in the room. What kind of team do you want to operate on?”
New York named JT Miller the 29th captain in franchise history ahead of the 2025-26 season after Drury acquired the former Rangers center in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks last January. Miller has championed a “No BS” slogan in an effort to wipe the slate clean – although the results have been mixed.
“Things happen during the season that can happen, and it can be unexpected, and you have to react a little bit on the fly,” Laviolette explained. “And sometimes it happens automatically, and sometimes it maybe requires a nudge or a reminder.”
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In an ideal world, this responsibility comes from the top. Laviolette cited alternate captain Vincent Trocheck as a player he leaned on last season.
“It’s about connecting with your leaders. And when you mention ‘Troch,’ you’re talking about one of the best leaders in this room,” praised Laviolette. “Whether he’s playing in a summer championship game, or he’s playing to win the Stanley Cup, or he’s playing and he doesn’t get a chance to make the playoffs, I think you’re going to get a lot out of him.”
Trocheck has 48 points (15 goals, 33 assists) and a minus-16 record in 58 games this season, missing time in October and November with an upper-body injury.
“It shows character, but you hope your leaders — and a guy like Troch — continue to lead by example, not only in the room and in what he says and what he does, but also on the ice,” Laviolette said. “And so it doesn’t surprise me that he continues to push hard.”
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Laviolette also highlighted another alternate captain, Zibanejad, who is having a bounce-back campaign in 2025-26.
“It’s really good to see Mika have a good year and come back and put up a lot of points,” Laviolette said. “He’s a great person and a great player. There was a lot of weight on everyone in that second year. It’s good to see.”
Zibanejad has recorded 62 points (20 goals, 42 assists) in 82 games in 2024-25, playing at his lowest points-per-game pace since 2017-18. He notably struggled to reproduce his typical production during a Rangers power play that fell to fifth in the League.
It was a different story in 2025-2026. Zibanejad paces New York with 30 goals and 67 points in 70 games, as well as 14 power play goals. He reached the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his 15-year NHL career.
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“It’s good to see the guys doing well. I’m sure there’s still a lot of frustration,” noted Laviolette. “It’s New York, and the fans are great, they’re passionate, they want to win. And if it doesn’t happen there, the situation becomes more difficult.”
