Ek's note... Every now and again I get a email sent to me at eklund@hockeybuzz.com and it just nails the situation... In my opinion this is one of those emails..
There is a particular kind of cowardice that only large organizations seem capable of, and the New York Rangers may have just perfected it.
Chris Drury’s recent letter to season-ticket holders, explaining that the team is “retooling” and may trade away star players, is being sold as honesty. It isn’t. It’s a preemptive absolution, issued not at the end of a season — when reflection might be earned. but in the middle of one?? when accountability is still very much require
This isn’t leadership. It’s an exit memo written in advance.
The Rangers have struggled. That much is undeniable. But struggling teams are supposed to dig in, not send letters asking to be understood. What does a message like this do to the players who still have months of hockey left to play? What does it say to a room that’s being told, in corporate prose, that its efforts may no longer matter?
The answer is simple: it undercuts them.
Ownership deserves just as much scrutiny here. James Dolan has long presided over the Rangers with the peculiar confidence of someone who believes proximity to success is the same as responsibility for it. When things go well, the organization celebrates its “culture.” When they don’t, explanations are outsourced and expectations lowered. This latest excuse of a letter fits that pattern perfectly.
What makes the timing especially galling is that it feels like a convenient hedge against reality. A way to soften the blow of an injured goaltender, uneven play, and a season that isn’t living up to its billing. Instead of confronting those problems head-on, management chose to narrate its way around them.
And then, almost cruelly, the players responded the only way professionals can: by playing one of their strongest games of the season the very next day, blowing out the Flyers in Philadelphia. No speeches. No memos. Just hockey.
Which only underscores the central failure of the letter itself.
Teams don’t need permission slips to compete. Fans don’t need advance explanations for disappointment. What they deserve — what this city has always demanded — is resolve. Not retreat. Not spin. Not an apology drafted before the outcome is decided.
If the Rangers are running from something, it isn’t expectations. It’s responsibility.