What went wrong with the Rangers in 2024-25?
Nobody was closer to analyzing the Blueshirts disastrous season than MSG Networks analyst Joe Micheletti and he’s doing it now.
Appearing on the “100% Hockey” podcast with John Shannon and Darren Millard, Micheletti examined the season, seeing things clearly and seeing them whole. The following is the gist of the interview – along with Maven inserts to make it a readable exchange:
THE BIG PROBLEM: “It was spirit,” said Joe. “Spirit was missing.”
HOW DID IT HAPPEN: “It started in the summer with the Barclay Goodrow situation not handled properly. Then came the Jacob Trouba saga which lasted for months. It all carried over and players were still talking about it – how it had affected them – at the breakup meetings. How they lost their captain and alternate captain who were players who came to play. It was an organizational failure from top to bottom.”
WHAT WAS THE FALLOUT: “The players were shocked. They were missing something and they never recovered the spirit that they needed to win; although they had the talent.”
YET THEY OPENED THE SEASON WITH A 12-4 RECORD: “It was not as good as it looked.”
PLAYERS SPIRIT: “There were games when they just weren’t there at all.”
THE GENERAL STAFF: “Chris Drury has to learn from this as well. He’s a relatively young general manager and there’s always room for lessons to be learned; looking at ‘this didn’t work; how things happened and why. And maybe I didn’t do everything right and maybe I ought to change.’ Change needs to happen because certain things didn’t work. Re Drury: ‘Maybe I didn’t do everything right. Maybe I ought to change.'”
MIKE SULLIVAN: “He’s a great choice. It couldn’t have been a better one. Mike has toughness and the ability to connect well with the players. He’s got the experience and he’s a winner. I hope he has enough to make the changes.”
WHAT ELSE HAS TO CHANGE: “They need to get back to a culture where the players want to work and enjoy themselves. If they can get that there’ll be success. In the previous season they thought that they could win any game. This past season when things didn’t go well they didn’t have the players to get out of that and they lost on that count.”
OTHER SUGGESTIONS: “Players should not get upset about what happened before (Goodrow, Trouba, plus). They have to recover the spirit and bring everything together. I don’t think they can win unless they have that.”
FINAL THOUGHTS: “I hope that Mike has enough to change what needs to be changed!”