Commentary from "J" worth sharing:
"It would seem that the problem is our "new leadership" are suffering the same old problems because of the same old coaching staff.
We only have enough focus to right half the ship at a time, says Renneys little notebook. In Toronto, we came out early and got the goals and then coasted the rest of the way in route to getting burned. Now we start soft and put ourselves in the hole every 1st period and then finish strong and dig ourselves out by the end of the 3rd. Our coach has a tendency to play favorites and feels like if he gets the lines just right, there will be a click and every player in a rangers uniform will start to magically glow and play the best they'll ever be capable of... Whats worse, is our players are starting to adopt the attitude of the coach. "This is bad bad bad.. but say the right things, because we are a good team and have hope because good fortune is just around the corner." Good teams don't need to rely on hope and they create their own luck.
Our new captain feels he is leading by example, I think. Drury never really gave me the impression that captain is a role he relishes. Kind of like Leetch. It's an honor and you can't let the team down, but for a humble guy like Drury...you need a vocal leader like Shanny was for Jagr and Yzerman or a co captain like he had before in Briere. From what I've seen so far from the guys on the team, Naslund has the potential to be that guy as much as he would seem to want to keep a low profile himself.
Funny enough Shanny wasn't necessary, and neither was Avery during this free Agency period. The only 2 things that were consistent last season was that Avery was a pain in the @$$ whenever he was in the line up and Shanny was being proactive talking to the refs, the coach, the other players, the emotional captain and the media and anyone else he could get his hands on. That gave us an identity and a personality. We have a faceless team now and some of the guys that we signed are just trying to resurrect their own careers while playing a role in the whole teams success. Instead the team was placed on their shoulders. Naslund was probably used to it because of how he was treated by "the nucks". Same for Redden in Ottawa. Aside from Naslund, Drury and Henrik, there are a lot of guys avoiding the media these days and leaving quickly after the games... and Sean Avery is somewhere smirking over his prediction that our acquisitions wouldn't be able to cut it in NY. (remains to be seen, but one can't deny that neither has really carved out their niche yet)
Renney wanted to make it clear he was in control of this team. Jagr's gone, and Shanny's gone, as is Avery and the team is void of strong personalities. There's no one to bully him and get in the way of him coaching the "the kids" , which is supposed to be his specialty. The only problem is there's no one saving his ass anymore either (except Henrik, but you cant win games without goals). Renny's made a point so far of benching Dubinsky and Prucha (most recently), Malik (previously our worst defender) and Nylander a few seasons ago, but never really threw down with anyone with a strong personality or that would take him to task or could potentially save his rear when he needed some wins.
Probably one of the reasons Messier had him ousted from Vancouver."
-'J'
