Despite the evidence increasingly suggesting otherwise, Peter Laviolette remains adamant that his Rangers already have what is needed to accomplish their goals.
“I believe the answers are in that room,” Laviolette said Tuesday afternoon after practice. “There’s things we can do better, that we have to do better in order to be successful. But the only ones to get us out of where we’re at right now are ourselves. So we have to focus on that.”
This comes one day after the Rangers were trounced, 5-1, by the rival Devils on Monday night at Madison Square Garden. It comes amid a 1-6 stretch, which included a five-game losing streak, as their season threatens to spiral out of control.
It, very notably, also comes not long after general manager Chris Drury sent a memo to the rest of the league about the Rangers being open for business and ready to listen to trade offers for many of their longtime stars, The Post’s Larry Brooks and Mollie Walker previously reported.
Including Tuesday, the Rangers will get two consecutive days of practice and a day off on Thursday before their next game, against the Penguins at home.
It marks a welcome break after a grueling stretch and also gives the Rangers a needed chance to reset and self-evaluate all that’s gone wrong.
Laviolette acknowledged the Rangers will search for changes, but again stressed his belief in this roster as constructed. As trade rumors swirl around the team, Laviolette — publicly, at least — is defending what he already has.
“There’s different meetings, different lines, different lineups, different tones to different meetings, there’s always things you can try to shake it up,” Laviolette said. “Ultimately, we have a group of guys that has found success in the past.
“Right now I have a group here with me that I feel can win, has proven it can win. Right now, we’re not, so that needs to change.”
The team’s veteran leaders that Laviolette is so confident in have regressed nearly across the board.
Chris Kreider has just 10 goals and no assists. Mika Zibanejad has five goals and 13 assists with a brutal minus-14. Vincent Trocheck only has 12 points. Adam Fox has 20 assists, but no goals. Jacob Trouba’s struggles are certainly well documented.
And that’s one of the most worrying parts of this skid — despite Laviolette’s claim the “answers are in that room,” they are running out of places to turn and are yet to hone in on any remedy.
“It sounds crazy but tonight I felt like we played better,” Trocheck said after Monday’s loss. “We’re in a funk. Everyone in here’s gotta just play a little bit out of their comfort zone. Obviously, what we’re doing right now isn’t working. It’s gonna take something different.”
But can that “something different” be found internally, from a group that has repeatedly shown it is usually more of the same?
Yes, there is the possibility of a major trade, but there are speed bumps — particularly with Trouba and Kreider and their limited no-trade clauses — that could make that difficult.
And without a drastic change, the immediate future looks bleak.
“Things haven’t been going how we want to lately,” Trouba said. “It’s a long season. The faster we can get out of this and turn things back in the right direction, the better. But right now, these aren’t fun times to go through. But these are where teams get built and we gotta find our way through adversity to get to the good stuff.”
For now, until or unless there’s a trade or significant benching or shake-up, it’s on the struggling veterans to turn this ship around. Otherwise, it’s likely their last shot together.
Laviolette is counting on them to do so.
“Those have to be the guys,” Laviolette said. “Those are the guys that are the core of the team, have the heaviest hand and the heaviest minutes inside the game. I think that [would be] a good step.”