Rangers’ biggest problem can’t be solved with minor roster changes

DALLAS — When a team, especially one in New York, is in a state of catastrophe, the pursuit of why runs rampant. 

The Blueshirts are searching for their own answers.

Everyone from the players to the coaching staff to the hierarchy. 

There may not be a way to sum it all up, but all there is left for president and general manager Chris Drury to do is begin working toward a possible solution. 

A common denominator of the team’s issues has been an off-kilter locker room, where there have now been two miffed players — Jacob Trouba (Anaheim) and Kaapo Kakko (Seattle) — who had to be shipped out partially due to their issues with the way head coach Peter Laviolette or Drury have moved during this remarkable fall from grace. 

And as the Kakko trade was finalized Wednesday, Matt Rempe was also recalled from AHL Hartford. 

Now, Will Borgen, the bottom-pair defenseman the Rangers acquired along with two 2025 draft picks in the Kakko deal with the Kraken, nor Rempe is going to be the savior.

But it’s a start toward reshaping a lineup for which deficiencies have long been masked, and are now getting majorly exposed. 

There is more misinformation percolating around the Rangers than there are concrete reports. 

It’s been a frenzy of wanting to get in on chronicling the Rangers’ downfall with all the juicy rumors they can get. 

Yes, Sean Avery is going to New York, a place the former Rangers instigator glows about in his book “Ice Capades.”

He’s going to see the band Phish in concert at Madison Square Garden next weekend.

No, there is no evidence the 44-year-old is in line for any sort of executive job with the Rangers. 

As has been reported multiple times in this space, there is no indication that changes are being contemplated behind the bench or in management at the moment. 

This has become a war inside the Rangers’ heads more than anything.

Every day seems to bring another negative headline to creep into the team’s psyche and mess with it further. 

The fact that a good chunk of it hasn’t had anything to do with the disappointing on-ice product is clearly weighing even heavier on the locker room. 

“It’s all mental at this point,” Braden Schneider said after the Rangers suffered their second loss to a last-place team in the span of nine days. “I think we want to do the right things and we’re working to do the right things, and we’re just a hair off. Just a little off the mark. I know everyone in here believes and everyone’s working for the right things. 

“We’ve just got to keep pushing through and hopefully we can break through the ceiling.” 

The real question here is: Where did the Rangers’ mental strength go? 

Just last season, this was a team that solved every game in front of them.

They overcame every challenge no matter the size, backed down to no one and never thought themselves out of a game no matter the magnitude of the deficit. 

Now, the Rangers crumble at the first sign of adversity. 

The team folded like lawn chairs after Drury’s league-wide trade memo specifically named the Rangers captain, Jacob Trouba, and longest tenured player, Chris Kreider. 

One bad goal or one bad play causes a complete and utter collapse.

A turnover is ending up in the back of their net 10 out of 10 times nowadays. 

This 3-11 skid has become a self-fulfilling prophecy that the Rangers just can’t seem to shake. 

What was once one of their greatest assets has become debilitating. 

The only way to quiet the noise is in the standings.

The Rangers know this, as does everyone else in the National Hockey League. 

Until then, everyone will look to pick apart every square inch of the Rangers’ downfall. 

They’re in control of their own destiny, not what’s said on the outside.