Eyes On Isles
Fansided

Islanders cause NY Rangers owner James Dolan to clean house

By Michel Anderson

UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 01: Brock Nelson #29 of the New York Islanders celebrates a first period goal by Anthony Beauvillier #18 (not shown) against Alexandar Georgiev #40 of the New York Rangers at the Nassau Coliseum on May 01, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders shut-out the Rangers 3-0 and with the victory, the Islanders clinched a playoff berth to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
UNIONDALE, NEW YORK - MAY 01: Brock Nelson #29 of the New York Islanders celebrates a first period goal by Anthony Beauvillier #18 (not shown) against Alexandar Georgiev #40 of the New York Rangers at the Nassau Coliseum on May 01, 2021 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders shut-out the Rangers 3-0 and with the victory, the Islanders clinched a playoff berth to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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In a surprise move, the New York Rangers fired both the team’s President John Davidson and the team’s GM Jeff Gorton. And apparently, the firings are a result of the back-to-back-to-back losses to the New York Islanders.

According to the NY Posts Larry Brooks, “recent mismatches against the Islanders highlighted the team’s deficiencies” lead to the firings today.

As an Islanders fan, there’s nothing more incredible than seeing the Rangers totally meltdown and clean house because the Isles dunked on them during the regular season. This is mana from heaven.

The New York Islanders caused this to happen

Since announcing a rebuild a few years back the Rangers have added Jacob Trouba, Artemiy Panarin, Kaappo Kakko (2019 2nd overall), Alexis Lafreniere (2020 1st overall), and Adam Fox.  That’s a lot of quality added to the roster in a short amount of time after signaling the rebuild in February of 2018.

Sure, they haven’t made the playoffs since 2016-17 but they haven’t been far off recently. They technically made the post-season last year but got bounced in the qualifying round in three straight games.

This year the Rangers are ten points out of a playoff spot in the East. That’s not where owner James Dolan thought his team would be at this point. But that wasn’t necessarily the catalyst here, it was seeing three losses in a row to the cross-river Islanders was enough.

Apparently, Dolan wants his team to play with more grit. Like the Islanders do.

Again, it’s incredible that the Islanders are the catalyst for change here. The fact that the Rangers completely abandoned course on a project started just years ago because the Isles (who haven’t been particularly good of late) beat them by a combined score of 13-1 over their last three meetings is the stuff that will fuel islanders comebacks against salty Rangers fans for decades.

Here are some of the best reactions to the news I could find on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/IslesHockey/status/1390029280244084746

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