Coach David Quinn, as noted by Larry Brooks in his column today, has a clear vision of what he wants an expects from his team. Per Brooks, Quinn wants consistent, hard-edged, straight line, fast hockey that necessarily must be accompanied by the same chip on the shoulder that the coach carries, and pulls off, with ease. What's preventing the Blueshirts from meeting this ideal on even a period-to-period basis, let alone from game-to-game, is more the personnel mix than inattentiveness or lack of desire. Keep this in mind rather than the column's title: "Rangers coach’s expectations may be too high for this group," because the title seems to indicate that Quinn should lower his expectations to meet the talent of the team.
As Brooks so eloquently wrote: "he is still the conductor trying to coax a bevy of flautists into moving into the percussion section." Quinn refuses to bend on practicing, a change from the recent past, as his assertion is if you want to get better, you practice. But despite the practice, when games are on the line, players are who they are, and the Rangers don’t have enough of the type of players Quinn needs to be successful. Believe that if you will or won't. but Quinn has established or is establishing the baseline of expectations. The bar is a high one, because why would you set it low just to meet what might be the "inferior" talent compared to what's needed for the style to be effective.
"One of the things I thought we were doing early on, for the first four, five, six weeks, there was a pace and simplicity to our game,’’ Quinn said. “There wasn’t a lot of BS to our game, whereas I think over the last two or three weeks, that has crept in. I think our impatience has hurt us. We were patient early in the year, and I thought we were in peoples’ faces more consistently.…“I think my job is to find out how hard they can do it (play a grinding, physical, in your face style, hard edge, straight line, fast up and down the ice style),… Quinn said. “I still think everybody is born with a certain level of that. Personalities play a big part in that, for sure. So I think sometimes when you’re at a practice and you can blow the whistle and say, ‘No, no, no. That’s not good enough. Do it again,’ and then they get out of their comfort zone sometimes during a game and they revert back to who they maybe were for a long time.
“I’ve said this before — I don’t know. My job is to push them as hard as I can and find out how consistent they can be with their physical and mental effort.…
Read that last sentence again. This mentality has worked with Vladislav Namestnikov and Filip Chytil, who per my source is not heading to play for the Czech Republic in the WJC as reported by Steve Kournianos. Both players have improved thanks to Quinn's guidance. But that assistance won't work for every player. Plus, maybe it is a lack of talent preventing the consistent performance Quinn wants to see. But Quinn rightfully won't change or lower his expectations nor will he allow mistakes to occur in practice without stopping to correct them. Establish the baseline and what's acceptable now. Make it muscle memory so in the future when the squad is improved, these mistakes hopefully won't occur or will be remediated thanks to the skill on the ice.
Practice notes: Cody McLeod, out since suffering a broken hand in a fight with the Islanders’ Ross Johnston on November 21 and expected to miss 4-6 weeks, returned to practice, wearing the red, no-contact jersey. On December 13, the view was that McLeod would miss 2-3 more weeks. He could return for Columbus on the 27th, Nashville on the 29th or St. Louis on New Year's Eve. When McLeod is ready to go, Boo Nieves could be the odd-man out or management could elect to send Lias Andersson, who is here at least through the roster freeze up to December 28, back to Hartford to see consistent minutes rather than the 6-8 per game he is seeing now.
Kevin Hayes, who has played in the last two games, but has not practiced since crashing into the boards last Friday against Arizona, did not practice Thursday. But Quinn said he may return to practice on Friday and he should be in the lineup Saturday.
With back-to-back games Saturday in Toronto and Sunday at home against Philly, Henrik Lundqvist and Alexandar Georgiev might split the goaltending duties. If that happens, I could see Hank play versus the Maple Leafs and Georgie take on fellow rookie netminder Carter Hart and the Flyers.