Slats' mea culpa

Sather's honeymoon is over with Trottier's dismissal

The New York Rangers fired Bryan Trottier on Wednesday, just 54 games into his NHL head coaching career. CNNSI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy, who says the Rangers needed to make a change as a last-ditch attempt to salvage their season.

CNNSI.com: Did the Rangers pull the plug on Bryan Trottier too soon?

Kennedy: No, I think Trottier got a fair shake, because he probably shouldn't have got the job in the first place. This is nothing against Trottier, because I'm sorry he's out of work and I hope he gets a good job somewhere else, but he just wasn't the right guy for this team with all of the veterans on the club. I think they did it at the right time.

The Rangers are still in the playoff race, despite being in 11th place in the Eastern Conference right now, but realistically it doesn't really look good. They don't play defense. They simply make elementary defensive mistakes game after game. If Sather elevates one of the assistants, I don't know that it will make a difference.

I don't think Trottier was disliked by the team or that they were tanking on him. They are just a team with a lot of guys who don't want to pay the price and sacrifice certain things to play defense. And that includes Mark Messier. It's sacrilege to say it, of course, but he's become much more of a one-way player as he's gotten older. And he's the leader and sets the example for the team.

The Rangers have had a ton of injuries, and when you lose Brian Leetch, Pavel Bure and Mike Richter, it's going to hurt a team. But with the exception of Leetch, the other injuries were to guys who you didn't want to hang your franchise on. Richter had been great, but given his concussions and problems with both knees, he wasn't a guy who you wanted to have as much invested in as the Rangers did. They simply didn't set themselves up well for that. Richter works really hard and was one of the great goalies, but they didn't cover themselves.

CNNSI.com: How much of this is Glen Sather's fault?

Kennedy: It was clearly a mistake from the beginning. Sather's honeymoon is over. This is the day that it ends officially in New York. This is now fully his team after the Neil Smith era. He's had plenty of time to clear up the muck and make some signings, and he has his team, his guys in place now. So he has nobody to blame.

And Sather's coaching choices have been somewhat surprising. Ron Low was a guy who Sather let go in Edmonton and then brought back to the Eastern Conference with a team that just wasn't built in the same style of the Oilers. The Rangers did make a strong bid for Ken Hitchcock this summer, and he's the guy they should've gotten. Hitch told me that he wanted to go to Philadelphia and the Flyers' offer was such that the Rangers couldn't have gotten any better. But they didn't get Hitchcock, they didn't get Ron Wilson and they missed Bob Hartley by two weeks.

Save for that little run of five out of six victories, this team has been in disarray all season. I don't know who Sather's going to hire, but he definitely hasn't gone out and got some of the very good coaches that were out there. Hitchcock would have this team in the playoffs right now. If you think back to who was responsible for those great Oilers teams, you only think about Sather. You don't have the Kevin Lowe-Craig MacTavish vibe that the Oilers have now, for instance. He liked the spotlight, a little more than he would say.

If he brought in a guy like Wilson or Hartley, he would've had to share the spotlight. By bringing in a guy like Trottier who was in way over his head, Sather kept it as his team. I think he got caught a little bit caught up in being unwilling to bring in a guy who could be a better coach for the Rangers.

CNNSI.com: Did Sather make Trottier the fall guy for an injury-plagued season?

Kennedy: No, because even with the injuries, they could've been better. This is the same sort of thing that was bothering the Rangers when Smith's tenure there was nearing the end. It just doesn't feel like a team. They don't kill penalties well enough, they don't hang onto leads well enough and they give up too many goals. That's the most elementary thing, but they give up easy goals.

Even with the injuries, Trottier has to take responsibility. They have given up 165 goals. The two teams they are closest to in goals allowed are the Panthers (152) and the Thrashers (178). Those are two teams that barely cross the radar on the playoff scene and they are the only ones even in the Rangers' neighborhood. And if you look at the Thrashers' roster compared to the Rangers' roster, the fact that those two teams can be spoken about in the same breath defensively is amazing, even without Leetch. It's never always the coach's fault, but Trottier was a mistake from the beginning. That's not to say that they would be leading the Atlantic Division, but they shouldn't be in 11th place. They should be in the playoff mix and they shouldn't be giving up those kind of goals.

CNNSI.com: What can the Rangers expect for the remainder of the season?

Kennedy: When you look at the team, if Bure is healthy for the last stretch of the season and Dunham settles in again in net, they could catch the Islanders for eighth. It's not like they are trying to catch the 1987 Oilers.

What we're seeing here is that Sather is now accountable. Trottier was his guy that he brought in, so if it's Trottier's fault, then it's Sather's fault. I think it would be exciting to see Sather behind the bench. I'm kind of rooting for that. He's still an intimidating guy and maybe he could do something with them.

CNNSI.com: Where will Trottier end up?

Kennedy: I don't think he's going to get another head coaching job again right away, but Hartley obviously thinks well of him. I could see him ending up as an assistant in Atlanta because he knows Hartley and he served the right role under him in Colorado. Toward the end of his career in Pittsburgh, he was there in a mentor role and was basically there for the young players. He did pretty well with that and he still works pretty well with young players.

Trottier does command respect because of who he is. But he's soft-spoken and is kind of a quixotic guy. I'm not in on the huddle with the team, but when you watch how he runs practices and the way he talks, he feels like a one-off. Some days you feel like he doesn't have both oars in the water. But he's very respected by a lot of people, and he did a really nice job with the young players in Colorado. So there's no reason why he couldn't be a nice fit in Atlanta. I'd like to see him get a job in the NHL. It seems like they could have something exciting going in Atlanta pretty soon and he could be a part of it. He certainly doesn't skimp. He got there early and worked hard.

CNNSI.com: What's a fair evaluation period for a coach?

Kennedy: Every situation is different. Because this was a mistake from the beginning, I can't say that he didn't get a fair enough shake. If Trots wants to say that he didn't get enough of a chance with the team, that's fine and he has every right to say that. It's not as if he's proven that he can't coach in the NHL at all. But for this mix, he wasn't taking them anywhere. There were no signs that things were getting better and it was long enough. Particularly because this is a team with a lot of veterans and is not about to start doing things drastically differently than what they were doing.

It's hard to say whether 54 games was long enough for a coach, because usually the answer is no, but in this case I'd say it was. And I hope it's what Trottier wanted. Slats said that Trottier was relieved and I'm not surprised by that. I can see Trottier settle into a situation where there is a little less heat and a little more success.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy covers the NHL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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