NHL Network Analyst RIPS Rangers Management: "Garbage", "BS", "Slippery Slope"

The situation around the New York Rangers has gone from bad, to worse, to utterly embarrassing. A 2-0 loss to the Nashville Predators, the NHL's worst team record-wise on Tuesday night, was the latest debacle in their bewildering season.

Former NHL player, NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp has come out and simply blasted the Rangers—in particular the team's management—for the way they've handled things this season. Calling the front office's tactics "bullsh*t" and "garbage", he says their actions have the team on a "slippery slope."

Watch it or don’t, but until the BS stops, nothing will change on the ice… #NYR https://t.co/gKaXm4l8n9 pic.twitter.com/iUt0JLvMvu
— Mike Rupp (@Rupper17) December 17, 2024

Referring to the dropping of names out on the trade market, like Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba (who has since been dealt), Rupp said the players "have been manipulated."

You got to have the right environment surrounding the team. I don't believe that's been cultivated. And you can date it back to the tradings of a couple players and the way those were managed, and that's bled into the locker room. It feels like 'games' have been played (with them) and players have been manipulated in different ways...
Chris Kreider's name getting out there—I don't believe there's been any intention of the New York Rangers trading Chris Kreider. I really, generally, don't. I do believe his name was... intentionally leaked out there in order to get a response from the team.
That's a slippery slope, especially from what's already happened here. And I think there becomes this distrust.

He went on to call the recent healthy scratch of Kaapo Kakko a "a garbage response. That's a terrible response. He shouldn't have even been the guy, but that's a whole other conversation." (Kakko also blasted the team over that).

In summing it all up, Rupp's overall point is that to get out of this rut the team is in, the players have to want to come to the rink. But he says that's not the case with the current environment.

You're dealing with bullsh*t, as opposed to dealing with the problem you have at hand. I think these players are looking around and they're just seeing everything burning down around them. They just want to survive each day going to the rink. Until coming to the rink is fun... this team ain't gonna get out of this.
They need no more bullsh*t. No more bullsh*t, and maybe this team can start turning this thing around.

The Rangers are now .500, at 15-15-1, losers of 11 of their last 14 games. We're all just waiting for the next shoe to drop—or shall we say, to slide down this 'slippery slope.'