New York Rangers head coach David Quinn wants to meet as many players as he can prior to training camp as he took a trip to Sweden recently.
New York Rangers newly hired head coach David Quinn wants to meet up with as many players prior to training camp in September. He recently returned from Sweden after catching up with the King and some other important Blueshirts.
“I want to hit the ground running when we open camp,” Quinn told Larry Brooks of the New York Post.
Quinn met up with Mika Zibanejad, Henrik Lundqvist, and Jesper Fast as the coach continues his quest for meeting all the players during this summer. While talking with these players, Quinn mentioned that the conversation turned to the type of personnel they have now. The team essentially remains the same as the team that skated off in their finale loss to the Philadelphia Flyers back in April.
“You know, when I was talking to those guys in Sweden, it came up that we’re not in the same situation that the Rangers were the last few years,” Quinn said. “But no matter what, I’m approaching it as if we are one of the 31 teams in the league looking to win the Stanley Cup, and that’s how I want the players to think. If we work at it — and we will — people might be surprised at what we can accomplish collectively.”
The situation that is being referred to is, of course, the current state of rebuilding the Rangers face heading into next season. The head coach and his recently hired coaching staff, along with veteran coach Lindy Ruff, have a lot of work to do, but Quinn’s confidence in his staff is something the Rangers have not seen in some time.
One player Quinn missed on his overseas journey was veteran Ranger Mats Zuccarello. Zucc was not in Sweden at the time of his visit and Quinn took responsibility for not meeting him claiming poor geographic skills.
“If I was better at geography I’d have met with Zucc, too,” Quinn told Brooks.
That’s all right though, as Zuccarello was probably fishing that day anyway as he posted a pretty funny picture on his Instagram account last week.
Zuccarello, fisherman or taking a dig at the New York Islanders fisherman logo days.? It’s probably the first, but I really want to think its the latter.
But clearly Quinn is doing his due diligence in earning the respect of his players, which could be a great sign for next season.
