The delineation of jobs on the Rangers is crystal clear:
David Quinn is the coach and his focus is solely on winning games and making the playoffs. Team president John Davidson, general manager Jeff Gorton, and the rest of the front office are concerned about the organizational rebuilding that is now approaching its third year.
“As a coach, I don’t think about the rebuild,” Quinn said before a disheartening 4-2 loss to the Islanders on Tuesday night at the Garden, his team’s final game leading into the nine-day break that encompasses this weekend’s All-Star Game in St. Louis and the five-day bye week.
“I think about our team, I think about what we’re capable of, I think about making the playoffs,” Quinn said. “I don’t spend any time, and neither does our staff, thinking about ‘rebuild.’ That’s not in our mindset.”
The thing is, for the past two trade deadlines, the Rangers’ front office has only been thinking about the rebuilding process. The first was done with Alain Vigneault as the lame-duck coach, but the second was last season with Quinn an intimate observer of how a sell-off of veterans essentially can put an end to a season.
So when these Rangers return from the break, it’s going to be paramount that they immediately not only play well, but also that they win games. Because convincing the front office to retain the team’s key pieces as the Feb. 24 trade deadline approaches will be difficult.
The buzz has already started picking up around goalie Alex Georgiev, who didn’t go into the break on the heels of his best performance, allowing four goals on 18 shots Tuesday against the Islanders after he had beaten them twice in the past week. The Maple Leafs are obviously interested in Georgiev, as are the Avalanche. But the Rangers are going to have to be bowled over by an offer to think about it seriously. The best market for Georgiev, who will turn 24 on Feb. 10 and who is set to be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights, would still be this summer.
Georgiev is still a big part of this current team, even if he’s presently part of the untenable three-goalie situation with Henrik Lundqvist and Igor Shesterkin, the rookie who headed back to AHL Hartford to play during the break. The reason Georgiev played all three games against the Islanders was because Quinn thought that’s what gave his team the best chance to win. That’s always the way Quinn thinks, because that’s his job.
And speaking of his job, the team really has gotten better since the season began. The youngest team in the league might not be winning with the consistency that it would like — the Rangers only have had one instance in which they have won more than two in a row, and that was three in a row around Thanksgiving. But they haven’t had the epic stinkers that defined the early season and they’re in almost every game, no longer having to rely on elite-level goaltending to be competitive.
“Our game is worlds better than it was at the beginning of the year,” said Chris Kreider, who is replacing the injured Artemi Panarin at the All-Star festivities. “It’s so much better. … We had a few lapses against good teams, and they’re going to capitalize. We have to shore up those things, but I do think we’re worlds better than we were earlier in the year.”
The Rangers need to keep getting better, otherwise Kreider, Georgiev, and the other possible rental properties — Tony DeAngelo, Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast — might be out the door with the return focused on the future. A player such as Pavel Buchnevich, with another year after this one left on his contract, might also enter the mix.
If a slew of players leave, that means no playoffs for Quinn or the group that remains. And that means disappointment, again, and maybe not even the best result for the rebuild.
“Anytime you have young players, it is good for their development to experience meaningful games towards the end of the season,” Quinn said, “and to make that type of playoff push.”
For more on the Rangers, listen to the latest episode of the “Up In The Blue Seats” podcast:
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