There is a fine line between reacting and overreacting. The side Rangers boss David Quinn falls on in the aftermath The embarrassment of Thursday’s 4-0 opening night loss For islanders, it could reverberate during the season if the coach makes a bad choice.

“This is a balancing act,” Quinn said after training on Friday, in which Tony Di Angelo was sent to ski with the JV team, essentially every line, narrative and defensive pairing was matched. We are definitely very worried about what happened [Thursday] night.

“Sure, really disappointed. It was a complete shock for us workers. „

Of course, it was only one match. Of course, it was only the first game. Of course, there will be speed bumps not only for this team, but also for any team, to face. It would be crazy to panic and start throwing furniture in the midst of a 60-minute tantrum in a season of over 3,360 minutes.

But Thursday’s hateful effort It can’t simply be written off as one of these things. The loss was the most inaugural match that Blueshirts had achieved in 40 years, since they defeated Bruins 7-2, 7-2, on their way to 3-12-3. In fact, Rangers have been hit with four goals or more in the opening match only four times in the history of the franchise. So no, this is not something that happens every day.

But in the wake of the performance in which Quinn said, both immediately after the game and then again on Friday, „nothing good happened … in any capacity“, the groups of players were less of a problem than the team’s intention and preparation. Certainly, the coaching staff shares the responsibility for the total eclipse of the heart.

DeAngelo has been temporarily demoted – he can’t be officially appointed to the cab squad without compromising, which would be a 50-50 suggestion at this point given the icy luggage he’s carrying – because of bad behavior, not because he was one of the thousands to throw in to play around Bad.

There was no excuse for the defender to incur a penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior by speaking and then locking the door in the box after being called to hug the bear one minute into the third game. In fact, DeAngelo appeared on the bench at several different stages of the competition.

The Rangers and Quinn thought they’d put verbs like this behind a couple of years ago, when DeAngelo was repeatedly scratching about „maturity issues.“ There wasn’t any of that last season. But here we are, one game in 2020-21.

„Tony received an uncontrolled penalty, and I had a conversation with him, and we just have to make sure that doesn’t happen,“ Quinn said. “We took a lot of punishments [shorthanded eight times] On [Thursday]We took a lot of sanctions last year, and we have to stop them in their infancy now. „

Quinn declined to say whether DeAngelo will get scratched in Saturday’s rematch against Islanders, but Smart Money says yes, he will be in streetwear. Every defensive tandem changed during training, with Ryan Lindgren skating with Jacob Trouba, Jack Johnson to the left of Adam Fox, and Brendan Smith to the right with Candry Miller.

Two things here: 1) Why disintegrate the Lindgren-Fox combination that was the team’s best season? And, 2) if the idea is to reduce the pressure on Miller by pushing him out of the match pair with Troppa, then why shouldn’t Smith meet Troppa to rebuild a pair that was so effective after the trade deadline?

And I think the third and fourth: Why do we change every defensive combination, and what about Johnson who raises him above Smith in the ranking?

Other than the Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich unit, the remaining three lines were also bent. Notably, Quinn moved Alexis Lafreniere up and to the right wing on line 1A with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome, while Kaapo Kakko was dropped into a reconfigured third unit with Filip Chytil and Phillip Di Giuseppe.

I spent the summer pushing for Lafreniere to immediately get sixth place, and I think he deserved it. But the move will be seen more as a demotion for Kakko than a promotion for Lafreniere. If this is the case internally, it may backfire. Rangers simply can’t shrink Kakko’s character at this point before he even has a chance to establish a foothold.

“This is his second year. Everyone here thinks he’s a really good player.” The coach said of the 19-year-old winger, “We just need players to come day and night, compete day and night, and it’s no different.” He was in a crowded bus from Guys who haven’t had good nights, so it should be better, but everyone should be better. “

Thats all about it. Rangers must be better. Much better. The road there will be paved with options. Choosing the wrong things can have long-term consequences.