Rangers: Poor play, outside noise doomed coach
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Greg Wyshynski
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — The New York Rangers blamed their own lackluster play for getting coach Peter Laviolette fired but said that “outside noise” this season contributed to their disastrous drop in the standings.
Laviolette was fired Saturday after the Rangers failed to make the playoffs after their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2023-24 season, in which they advanced to the Eastern Conference finals. Laviolette was the second consecutive Rangers coach fired after two seasons behind the bench. In 2023, he replaced Gerard Gallant, who made the conference finals in his first season with the Rangers and was fired after losing to New Jersey in the first round.
“Do we think too highly of ourselves after one good year? I don’t know,” center Mika Zibanejad said of this pattern.
“Obviously in a place like New York, you know what our expectations are,” center Vincent Trocheck said. “After a season like last year, to come in here and not perform the way we needed to, coaches are often blamed. So it’s tough.”
Defenseman Adam Fox said the players didn’t have any issues with Laviolette or his message. “I think you look around the league and whenever a coach gets fired, I think players kind of wear that pretty hard, because if we did our jobs, those coaches would still be here,” he said.
The Rangers started strongly under Laviolette this season, going 12-4-1. But New York went 3-10-0 in December and could never find enough constancy after that to make the postseason cut.
“I think it started off good, even with some noise, and obviously once it kind of started to spiral, it was hard for us to grab that back. That’s when the wheels just really fell off,” Fox said.
That “noise” was a big topic of conversation in the Rangers’ dressing room in their final day of media availability this season. The “noise” started last offseason, when general manager Chris Drury used waivers to get around well-liked forward Barclay Goodrow‘s no-trade clause and send him to last-place San Jose. He also tried to trade captain Jacob Trouba last summer before successfully moving him in December, again using waivers as a threat to get around his trade protection.
Forward Chris Kreider, who was also shopped in his 13th season with the Rangers, said those moves shook the locker room. “It’s part of professional sports, but obviously at a certain point it does become somewhat of a distraction. Those two guys that were massive leaders for us and a big part of our room,” he said.
Zibanejad echoed that. “I think [there’s] frustration when you don’t know everything. We don’t know what’s going on. Obviously, we don’t have control over that kind of stuff, but it’s still something that we talk about or we have to go through,” he said. ” It’s two of our leaders. It’s our captain and assistant captain and big parts of our locker room. So of course it shakes things around a bit.”
Kreider became part of that noise when Drury circulated a memo to 31 other general managers on Nov. 24 to say that his team was open for business in the trade market — specifically mentioning the availability of Trouba and Kreider.
“I mean, it wasn’t the first time, [and] hopefully the last time that that kind of stuff comes out. That’s part of professional sports. I’m lucky I don’t have any social media, so I wasn’t really aware of it until people close to me brought it to my attention,” Kreider said. “This is home for me. This is the organization that gave me an opportunity to live out my dream. I’ve developed so many incredible relationships and grown up and spent so much time in this area. So obviously this is where I want to be and this is the group that I want to help in whatever fashion.”
Zibanejad and Kreider are core players, but both had disappointing seasons. Zibanejad had just 29 points in his first 50 games before finding his offense again when the Rangers acquired J.T. Miller from Vancouver on Jan. 31. Kreider saw his goal total drop by 17 from last season, mustering only 30 points in 68 games. He said Monday that he was dealing with a series of ailments, including a back problem, a bout with vertigo in December and a hand injury in the Rangers’ first game after the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
“I think ‘challenging’ is the right word. We obviously went in with very high expectations for ourselves, and we didn’t meet those expectations,” Zibanejad said.
Veteran defenseman Calvin de Haan, who played only three games for the Rangers after being acquired from Colorado in March, was stunned this wasn’t a playoff team.
“It was frustrating to see some of the goals we were letting in. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone; this is a group of five on the ice that just wasn’t necessarily cohesive at times. But then there was flashes of brilliance where you’re like, holy f—, this team should be in the playoffs. Frankly, you look at this team on paper and it would be crazy not to think that,” he said.
The Rangers now face an offseason of uncertainty, from the fate of the rest of their core players to the next coach behind their bench. It’s expected Drury will cast a wide net that includes veteran coaches and ones with much less NHL experience.
Fox said that, at the end of the day, it’s all about the players shutting out the noise and getting back to the success they had in previous seasons.
“Whoever the next coach is, obviously it’s on us to make sure there’s sustained success not just a quick burst and then back to being mediocre,” he said.
“Everyone has to really look in the mirror. This year was unrecognizable [from] the team that’s made a conference final in two of the past three years. A lot of those characteristics and traits that led to that success weren’t there this year.”
In other Rangers news, forward Artemi Panarin declined to discuss a report in The Athletic last week that Panarin and Madison Square Garden Sports, which owns the Rangers, paid financial settlements to a former team employee last year after she alleged that Panarin had sexually assaulted her during a road trip in December 2023. Panarin said he would answer only questions about hockey in his final media availability of the season Monday.
Penn State has fired coach James Franklin after 12 seasons, the school announced Sunday.
Franklin is owed more than $49 million, according to his contract. It’s the second-biggest buyout in college football history behind only Jimbo Fisher’s $76 million buyout from Texas A&M.
Associate head coach Terry Smith will serve as the Nittany Lions’ interim head coach for the remainder of the season, the school said.
Less than a year removed from an appearance in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Franklin’s program appeared to hit a new low when the Nittany Lions traveled out to Los Angeles two weeks ago only to lose to UCLA, a team that not only was winless but hadn’t previously held a lead all season.
The woes flew back home with the team to Penn State, and with them came “Fire Franklin!” chants at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. The Nittany Lions dropped their second straight home game, and third overall, when they fell to Northwestern 22-21 in front of a stunned crowd at Happy Valley.
With the two losses, Penn State became the first team since the FBS and FCS split in 1978 to lose consecutive games while favored by 20 or more points in each game, according to ESPN Research.
In Saturday’s defeat to the Wildcats, the Nittany Lions committed six penalties for 71 yards in the first half alone. They simply could never get out of their own way, and that was before quarterback Drew Allar suffered a season-ending injury in the fourth quarter.
Earlier in the season, when the losing streak began against Oregon at Happy Valley, Franklin fell to 4-21 at Penn State against AP top-10 opponents, including 1-18 against top-10 Big Ten teams.
Franklin’s .160 winning percentage against AP top-10 teams is tied for the third-worst record by a coach (minimum 25 games) at a single school since the poll era began in 1936, according to ESPN Research.
Hired in 2014 in the wake of Bill O’Brien’s departure for the NFL, Franklin inherited a team still feeling the effects of unprecedented NCAA sanctions in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual-abuse crimes.
Armed with relentless optimism and an ability to recruit, Franklin’s program regularly churned out NFL-level talent, from Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley to Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons. Franklin guided the Nittany Lions to the 2016 Big Ten title and a seemingly permanent spot in the rankings.
There was hope this fall might be the season when Penn State would finally break through and win its third national championship and first since 1986. Yet after three easy wins during a light nonconference schedule, the Nittany Lions crumbled.
Athletic director Pat Kraft said the school owes Franklin an “enormous amount of gratitude” for leading the Nittany Lions back to relevance but felt it was time to make a change.
“We hold our athletics programs to the highest of standards, and we believe this is the right moment for new leadership at the helm of our football program to advance us toward Big Ten and national championships,” Kraft said.
The move will cost Penn State at a time the athletic department has committed to a $700 million renovation to Beaver Stadium. The project is expected to be completed by 2027.
Former athletic director Sandy Barbour signed Franklin to a 10-year contract extension worth up to $85 million in 2021. According to terms of the deal, Penn State will have to pay Franklin’s base salary of $500,000, supplemental pay of $6.5 million and an insurance loan of $1 million until 2031.
It’s a steep price, but one the university appears willing to pay to find a coach who can complete the climb to a national title.
“We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investments in our program, compete in the best conference in college sports and have a state-of-the-art renovated stadium on the horizon,” Kraft said. “I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Oregon State has fired coach Trent Bray in the wake of an 0-7 start, the school announced Sunday.
It is the worst start for the Beavers since 1991, when they started 0-10.
“I want to thank Coach Bray for the energy and determination he brought to the role,” athletic director Scott Barnes said in a statement. “… This was a difficult decision, but the results on the field were not acceptable and after evaluating every aspect of the football program, I believe it is in the best interests of OSU football student-athletes, our fans and our university.”
Bray, an Oregon State alum who got promoted to the head coaching job after Jonathan Smith left for Michigan State following the 2023 season, finishes with a 5-14 record after taking over in 2024.
Robb Akey, who was in his first year as special assistant to the head coach, has been named interim coach for the remainder of the season. He was the defensive coordinator at Central Michigan from 2019 to 2024.
Bray is expected to be owed a little more than $4 million in buyout money, as he was in the second year of a five-year contract. The school said the buyout will come from donor-generated funds.
The move comes after a difficult start for the Beavers, which included heartbreaking losses at home to Houston and on the road at Appalachian State. Wake Forest handily won in Corvallis on Saturday, 39-14, with a backup quarterback starting for the Demon Deacons.
“I’m frustrated. I’m disappointed. I look at myself, and I’ve got to fix it,” Bray said after Saturday’s game. “It’s unacceptable to me where we’re at. That’s just how I look at it. What can I do? I’ve got to look at it. What can I do different to get these guys going?”
Special teams coordinator Jamie Christian was fired following the loss to Appalachian State.
The move comes amid a time of financial uncertainty in college athletics, as Oregon State is set to be part of the refurbished Pac-12 in 2026. Oregon State is adjusting to significantly lower television payouts.
Oregon State made three straight bowl games under Smith prior to his departure, and Bray was a linchpin of that rebuild. Oregon State was ranked as high as No. 10 in the country in 2023.
Bray is a former All-Pac-12 player at Oregon State, an honor he earned in 2005.
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