Pressure is on Mike Sullivan and the Rangers

Plus some additional NHL thoughts on the Masterton award and Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford

1. The worst-kept secret in the NHL over the past few months has been that the New York Rangers were eyeing Mike Sullivan to be their next head coach. It finally happened this week, just days after Sullivan and the Penguins parted ways.

I think the most fascinating aspect of this is how there is going to be immediate pressure on everybody for this to work.

Everybody involved is also out of excuses.

Let’s start with Sullivan.

The knock on him is going to be the lack of playoff success over the past seven years with four straight first-round exits followed by three straight non-playoff seasons.

After winning his first nine playoff series in Pittsburgh he has gone 0-for every year since.

There was a leash with the Penguins because he won two Stanley Cups with them. Putting banners in the rafters buys you a lot of time and a lot of loyalty with the organization.

The Rangers are not going to care about that.

More importantly, Rangers fans are not going to care about that.

This is a team and a fanbase that is not going to be content with simply making the playoffs, and they are not going to give two shits about what championships the head coach won with another team.

This is a team that was supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender.

This is a team that IS supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender.

Where it gets intriguing with Sullivan is if you look back at those first-round playoff exits it is easy to find a reason for them that goes beyond coaching.

Like I said earlier this past week, it was largely the goaltending.

He lost a short-series in the bubble to Carey Price. The next year Tristan Jarry melted down against the Islanders in a series where the Penguins significantly outchanced them and mostly outplayed them. The year after that his team absolutely dominated the Rangers, despite losing Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell at times during the series, and ultimately fell short because he had to have his third-string goalie go against Igor Shesterkin.

In terms of how those teams played, I am not sure what else the head coach — or the skaters — could have done different to change the outcome.

Goaltending is the ultimate coach-killer and coach-maker, and after that second Stanley Cup win he almost never had it.

Now he is going to have it.

Now Igor Shesterkin is going to be on HIS side.

If he still falls short in the playoffs with that, what other excuse is there going to be for him?

This is a chance for him to not only add to his legacy, but also rebuild some of what has deteriorated in recent seasons.

From a Rangers perspective, well, how many more cards is general manager Chris Drury and the front office going to have to play here if Sullivan does not get them back closer to a Stanley Cup or get them the results they want?

Drury dumped his captain and other veterans with bad contracts. He completely overhauled the defense with the players he wanted, with almost all of them on long-term contracts. He brought in J.T. Miller. And he is now on his third head coach in five years, none of them lasting more than two years.

If the players keep changing, if the coaches keep changing … and the results do not change? You’re out of cards to play, Chris.

At that point it’s all on you.

It might already be on him, even with a freshly signed contract extension he received after the season.

Sullivan has a team that wants to think it is a contender with a top-tier goalie. Over the past two years he had neither in Pittsburgh.

The Rangers have another new head coach, and one they coveted, with a Stanley Cup resume.

Everybody has to win here. Everybody is out of excuses.

There is no other option.

2. It is time for the yearly reminder that the Masterton Trophy makes me more and more uncomfortable every time it gets argued about.

Award arguments in general tend to bore me, but I can still get behind a good MVP debate or positional award if it is close enough or interesting enough. At least it is based on performance and on-ice/on-field production. It is related to the game and I don’t have to feel bad about having a different, or even wrong, opinion.

It’s fine. We have different definitions of value and different ideas on who is the best. It’s sports. You are supposed to argue about that stuff.

But the Masterton Trophy gets more and more uncomfortable every year for me, and this season is no exception.

I want to like the award.

The idea behind it is great.

In practice, the process with how it is ultimately awarded has a tendency just turn downright ghoulish.