Dan Boyle failed the Rangers in his two years in New York. But the Rangers probably failed him too, and it represents a bigger problem for the team.
Boyle watched from the stands as his Rangers exited the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Saturday; a healthy scratch in Game 5 against the Penguins due to what we think was sheer ineffectiveness. A terrific defenseman for more than 15 years, now 39 and getting paid $4.5 million annually, lost it.
MORE: Best active NHL player at each jersey number
Boyle had been losing it since he signed with the Rangers in July of 2014, and everything reached its tipping point Tuesday when he cursed out New York Post columnist Larry Brooks for criticism of him over the past two seasons. Boyle signed a 2-year, $9 million contract two summers ago, which allowed Anton Stralman — maybe the most underrated defenseman in the league — to walk and join the Lightning. Brooks had been critical of that move before.
So here we are — it's still April and the Rangers already had their break-up day. They're frustrated and disappointed, not feeling like they deserved better or were just a few bounces from a Stanley Cup like in years past. They know they flat-out lost it. Just like Boyle, both on the ice in two years and off it on Tuesday. He represents where the Rangers were the last two years — just not quite good enough — and this tirade represents how they're feeling now — frustrated and uncertain.
The Rangers' push to win a Stanley Cup failed and their window is closed. While the players would never admit it, it's clear to just about everyone who has watched this team over the last few years. Management did what it thought was right in trying to win. But it failed the team, ultimately, by doling out a series of bad contracts. And it really might have failed Boyle, too.
MORE: Rangers' push to win with Lundqvist fails, closes Cup window
The defenseman wasn't listed on an injury report, but with the secrecy of injuries in the NHL, it's hard to know whether or not he was actually banged up. All fans and media have to go by is what they see on the ice — which in the case of Boyle, was a disaster. A reporter like Brooks can only observe, so it's well within his rights to call out a player for performing poorly. And as he's done for years, Brooks continues to show up in the Rangers' locker room despite being critical and apparently hated by so many players, according to Boyle.
The Rangers are frustrated. Boyle, just a part of why they struggled this year, is frustrated.
Boyle was once among the most-feared puck-movers in the NHL. He never really came close to winning a Norris Trophy (no fault of his own), but 50-point seasons had become the norm for him during the mid-2000s. He had an even-strength Corsi-for below 52 percent just once (until this year) since it was first tracked in 2005-06 and his Corsi-relative was often strong too, meaning his team took a hit when he wasn't on the ice.
That wasn't really the case with the Rangers. He posted 44 points over 139 games in two seasons and though the team expected him to anchor its power play, the unit was pedestrian at best — 14th this season in 22nd last. The acquisition of Keith Yandle at last year's deadline took that primary role away from Boyle anyway, as he finished sixth in power play minutes per game on New York this season. Boyle's puck possession numbers weren't terrible, but he became a defensive liability during his two years and wasn't nearly the puck-mover the Rangers had wanted for so long.
Brooks makes the point in an October 2015 column that the Rangers trading Ryan Callahan and two first-round picks for Martin St. Louis or the deal that sent prospect Anthony Duclair and a first-rounder to Arizona for Yandle can be justified. New York was in win-now mode and did everything it could to get there with Henrik Lundqvist still in his prime. But the Boyle deal, which let Stralman walk, was a complete misfire.
And it cost them. The Rangers missed one of the best puck-possessing defenseman in the league dearly and got an aging blueliner who got worse over his two years with the team. Boyle isn't at fault for New York's failures — there's much more in play — but his ugly end with the team in postseason tirade is just a representation of what the Rangers have gotten wrong in the last decade.
They had their chance, and they lost it.