'This is bad': After another embarrassing display, more changes surely coming for Rangers

NEW YORK They already dumped their captain.

Whos walking the plank next off this sinking Rangers ship? Thats the only question to ask in the wake of another embarrassing day on the ice.

The Rangers were out of this one early, the Kings having popped two goals in a first period where the Rangers might have had the puck for all of 240 seconds.

Maybe 250 if you want to be generous.

Advertisement This is bad, Peter Laviolette said after the 5-1 loss that was lost, like too many of the Rangers nine losses in the last 12 games, soon after the opening puck drop.

To start a game like that after playing some of the games we have in our building ...

Its frustrating and disappointing to start a game like that.

Whats next is probably what comes next for every team fumbling around, looking as lost as the Rangers have for over a month now.

It may not be this weekend but Laviolettes term might be coming to a premature end; GM Chris Drury tried shaking up the core by sending Jacob Trouba to the Ducks a week ago but the response since then has been a collective shrug from the remaining Rangers, who barely beat the Penguins and Sabres around three ugly losses, with Saturdays being the ugliest.

Laviolettes team was clowned for 25 minutes on Saturday.

It marked the seventh loss at the Garden in the last 10 games and there have been too many similar pantsings by a variety of visitors to New York in that span: Those mediocre Sabres started this miserable ball rolling back on Nov.

7, a 6-1 Rangers loss at home.

There have been a pair of 5-1 losses, to the Devils last week and now the Kings, a pair of three-goal losses (to the Jets and Blues ) plus last weekends back-to-back of giving up seven to the Kraken and losing to the 32nd-overall Hawks.

If it is Laviolettes time to go that has been hastened by a group of players who cant be roused from their immobilized state.

Drurys group text is three weeks old; his team has responded by losing seven of 10 and looking bad doing so.

They are 1-8-0 when trailing after the first period.

Now 0-10-1 when trailing after two periods.

The definition of front-runners, a group that wilts when it has to grind anything out.

The goals in the Kings onslaught were the sort to make a coach curse which Laviolette did, quite visibly, after Zac Jones inexplicable decision to swing low off the Kings blue line as Los Angeles started out of its zone with speed and numbers.

Alex Turcotte converted the resulting two-on-one and the Rangers were behind 7:05 in.

Advertisement They kept falling farther behind.

Quinton Byfield got a step on Vincent Trocheck off a neutral-zone turnover and it was 3-0 at 2:46 of the second.

Adrian Kempe scored a tap-in on not one but two seam passes on the interior of the Rangers defense to make it 4-0.

The Rangers kept fumbling around their own end.

The cursing got more silent behind the bench, but certainly didnt abate.

Laviolette has been around and around the block.

He knows when his players are trying and when they arent.

He was asked about the teams execution and nearly mustered a rueful laugh.

We hardly ever talk about execution, he said.

That means his players arent trying hard enough to turn this around.

Thats the kiss of death for any coach.

If the axe is coming for Laviolette, he certainly understands why.

But that does not solve this teams issues, which are now many.

Igor Shesterkin sat on the bench after getting the mercy pull following L.A.s fifth goal just 25:04 into the game, helmet still on, perhaps musing about the $ 2 million or so per year he didnt see if another franchise would offer in July.

The Rangers had been one of the worst teams in the league giving up scoring chances before this 3-9-0 slide; now theyre either 31st, where they were before Saturdays awful loss, or theyve dropped to last.

Trouba is gone so he cant be blamed.

KAndre Miller missed Saturdays game, so neither can he for the time being.

Ryan Lindgren had another brutal game, as did Adam Fox , who was on for only one Kings goal but continues to look nothing like the perennial Norris Trophy candidate hes been the last four years.

Jones had a chance to earn more trust and more minutes with Miller out he was on for three Kings goals and looked unable to keep up.

Drury could certainly try something drastic aside from firing his coach.

Lindgren has been available in a trade ever since the memo went out, but no one is buying high on a pending UFA that isnt performing well.

Teams are inquiring on Kaapo Kakko but hes not been the main issue; Chris Kreider still hasnt been himself since the Drury text went out but again, who exactly is jumping to pick up a 33-year-old with two years left on his deal? Advertisement Drury and owner James Dolan certainly could be looking for a scalp soon.

Maybe its Kreider, maybe its Lindgren, maybe its Kakko or even Miller, though his indefinite absence doesnt help at the moment.

A lot of maybes.

The coach is the easiest one to remove, even if that solves little and gives whats left of the veteran core yet another sacrificial lamb for their own shortcomings.

It was David Quinn four years ago, deemed not ready to take the emerging team to the next level.

Then it was Gerard Gallant, who got two full years but didnt build enough structure on the ice or discipline off it.

Drury opted for Laviolette over John Hynes, who is the leader for the Jack Adams Award in his first full season behind the Wild bench.

The GM went with the coach who had a Stanley Cup and over 700 wins on his resume.

And it worked last season.

Laviolettes energetic, competitive practices and his monthly team-building gatherings brought the Rangers together quickly.

They got off to the best start in franchise history, won a Presidents Trophy and came within two wins of a Final.

Not even 30 games into this season and all of that has crumbled.

Laviolette has had a short shelf life in many of his five previous NHL stops for a number of reasons.

Perhaps an inability to adapt to changing environments is one.

But its hard to explain how this team has fallen so far so fast.

If it started with Drurys heavy-handed attempts to open cap space this summer at the expense of Barclay Goodrow and Trouba, two of the team leaders, then no coach could get over whats in the players heads.

If they hate the GM and how hes gone about handling the group that much, 1980 Al Arbour couldnt fix this.

Someones going to pay for this mess.

Whoever leaves next might do so with a smile on his face, though it doesnt appear that one player or one coach is the source of all these problems.

(Photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images).

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