Laviolette Already Calling Out His New Team's Performance: "Unacceptable"

New York Rangers new head coach Peter Laviolette was known earlier in his career as a players' coach. But in 2023, he was quick to slam his new team, even though it's only preseason. 

Laviolette called out the Blueshirts after a lacklustre effort in a 5-3 exhibition loss to the crosstown rival NY Islanders, calling their performance "unacceptable."

I thought our execution was way off the mark. We couldn’t make passes, couldn't get shots off – just off the end of our stick and not executing well. It's unacceptable, the first half of that game. It's not who we are or who we want to be.

Of course, it's just their 4th game trying to learn their new bench boss's system, so there's still a chance it will come. And while Laviolette admits that "there are some system things" to work out, he's certainly expecting to see more effort, at least in one part of the game:

"Backchecking is a universal language," Laviolette said, per Vincent Z. Mercogliano. "There's no system involved there. Finishing your checks and competing pucks is a universal language. Execution has to be a universal language. And, so, there's no excuses for that."

The Rangers open the season in Buffalo on October 12th, just ten short days away. Until then, they'll endeavour to raise their level in the coach's eyes, to, at the very least "acceptable."