There is no confusing what David Quinn wants and expects from his team. He 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.
It may be somewhat less clear why the Blueshirts, who meet the talent-rich Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday before they’re home to the Flyers on Sunday, have been unable to meet this ideal on even a period-to-period basis, let alone from game-to-game, though the personnel mix would seem to have way more to do with it than inattentiveness or lack of desire.
Measured against outside expectations, by retaining relevance in the playoff picture at this date at 15-13-5, it’s pretty good so far. But not according to the measurement of the first-year head coach, who was asked whether he was satisfied with where the team stands two games before the holiday recess.
“Not really. I think we can be better,” Quinn said. “I think we can be in a better place. I do. Certainly we want to play a more complete game, we want to play for 60 minutes, not 30 or 40 … or sometimes 25. I don’t think our consistency has been there.”
Quinn remembers the opening month and half perhaps a bit differently than it transpired, the Rangers opening 3-7-1, with a plethora of too-many-men penalties, before standing their ground and turning it around with shootout victories in San Jose and Anaheim despite allowing tying, extra-attacker goals in each. But he pointed to the “opening four, five, six weeks” as the good old days.
“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,’’ he 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.”
For a stretch of games, yes, but never for a long haul. The issue is personnel. Quinn has had success in getting more bite out of Vlad Namestnikov — who should be of wide interest on the market — and Mika Zibanejad, for example, but he is still the conductor trying to coax a bevy of flautists into moving into the percussion section. Grinding goes against the mix’s inherent nature.
“I think my job is to find out how hard they can do it,” 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.”
Rare is the practice in which Quinn does not stop a drill. Thursday was not such a rarity once the Rangers, preparing to confront the explosive Maple Leafs, turned over the puck twice in 15 seconds. The team then did the drill with alacrity and added purpose. Quinn’s expectations have been clear from Day 1. This has not been a year of mixed messages.
Before Tuesday’s game, Quinn was asked whether he could see the work the Rangers do at practice translate to the games. He said, “No.” Surprising considering how much emphasis he and the organization invest in practice. He also expressed incredulity that anyone would raise an eyebrow over practicing an hour, the way the Rangers do more often than not.
“An hour. An hour, really?” he said, before observing that the NHL is becoming “a no-practice league.” Well, considering the Rangers were a no-practice team the last few seasons, there was reason to think that.
But even as Quinn is correct in his assertion that if you want to get better, you practice, the fact is that when games are on the line, players are who they are, and the Rangers don’t have enough of the type of players he needs.