Hard-Nosed Hockey: Can the Rangers Rekindle Their Edge

When it comes to the National Hockey League, the physicality is always a pleasure to watch. During a player's time in the NHL, you learn the hard way that to reach the pinnacle, you need a hard-nosed style. If a team is to go every season playing nothing but sluggish and tame, fans shouldn't even bother wasting their money. If there were ever a team that could be described with just the word tame, that would be the New York Rangers. With the intensity reaching a new low just last season, a significant cultural shift is needed, but how?

Their significant drop in physicality could be partly attributed to the departure of their previous captain, Jacob Trouba. Nowhere near the most skilled of captains, but Trouba nonetheless helped spark his team as a leader. Since his departure, New York's power forward, Will Cuylle, appears to have been the only Blueshirt willing to maintain the physicality. However, it was not nearly enough to spark this team into the postseason. Without their captain, the Rangers have become sluggish and tame; perhaps their new captain can whip them into shape. 

New York fans knew from the second J.T. Miller stepped back on the ice as a Blueshirt that he was the kind of player this team needed. Miller embodies a hard-edged and disrupted identity that a true captain possesses, making him the perfect candidate. That fire deep within him is the exact kind of culture the New York Rangers are looking to develop. A hard-nosed culture has always been the missing piece of the puzzle, as far as fans can remember. With a leader like that looking to spread his fire, New York's newest coach looks to help out as well.

After a tenure of nearly ten years with Pittsburgh, the last thing fans expected was for the two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach to be behind the bench in Madison Square Garden. Recently, fans have begun to understand Sullivan's goals for his first year as he seeks to revitalize the Rangers team. A team of communication, high tempo, and aggressive hockey is in the making, with him in charge; fans have much to look forward to. With the demanding training he seems to be putting the Blueshirts through, these players on the ice may have found just the right coach to push them to their highest potential. Opening night is just days away, let's see if fans can notice a slight difference in culture as the season begins.