New York Rangers hire Peter Laviolette: Was this the Right Move? By Hank Indictor

Alright, so it’s been a while since I got to talk about the Rangers after the horrific disaster that was Game 7 and the casualty of Gerard Gallant. And while I respected GG, ultimately after having watched his presser and re-analyzing the series of events from this past season, I believe that despite his winning record the Rangers made the right move.

Now many will point out that the players didn’t produce, and I would be hard-pressed to disagree (I’m looking at you Mika and Panarin!) But when you look at the way they lost this series and the effort that was put into Game 7, for a team that on paper could’ve won the Stanley Cup, their season was a failure and something had to change. There were moments where Gallant didn’t make adjustments or make changes and when you look at the preparation (or lack thereof), and the amount of blown leads they had this year, then you realize it’s a coaching problem!

So now let’s talk about Peter Laviolette, who has been hired to be the new head coach of the Rangers. I’m not going to lie: This man wasn’t my first choice (I had the pipe dream that Mike Sullivan would be canned by the Pens and thus snatched up by the Rangers). But having said that out of all the available names and in the running this was by far the most obvious choice.

Right now the Rangers are still in that win-now window and while many were clamoring for Mark Messier, and Kris Knoblauch was also a possibility, hiring a veteran head coach whose had measures of success in several places was always going to be the way to go (while the former would’ve been a colossal mistake, I can see the latter being the next in line when the Rangers window expires).

Sure the Rangers may have been the last team to hire a new coach, but I think this was a combination of Chris Drury weighing his options and seeing if Quenneville was going to be reinstated by Gary Bettman. Ultimately though, the Rangers could only go so long without a coach, and so Lav it was!

And the more I think about it I’m confident that this is the right man for the job. Although Lav hasn’t won a Cup since 2006, this is a man who once led a Flyers team that had a goalie tandem of Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton to within two games of an unprecedented Cinderella run (and there’s no shame in the fact that they lost to that Blackhawks dynasty). It should also be noted that he also led another Cinderella team in the 8th-seeded Nashville Predators to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they also lost to a powerhouse in six games (this one being a Penguins repeat!). Imagine what he can do with a roster that features Kreider, Zibanejad, Panarin, Fox and Shesterkin!

Remember this is the kind of coach who isn’t a players' coach and will make adjustments. This is exactly what this team needs. Now time will tell whether or not it will work, but hopefully, this is the move that finally puts the team over the hump and delivers that long-overdue championship! LGR!!!!