Peter Laviolette will be introduced as the 37th head coach of the Rangers on Tuesday morning at MSG Training Center in Tarrytown, where he will field questions from the media for the first time since the official announcement of his hiring.
There will be plenty of topics to touch on — especially after last season’s first-round exit from the playoffs — but this will be about Laviolette setting the tone for his tenure with the Rangers.
The Post’s Mollie Walker put together five questions Laviolette will probably have to answer:
1. Why was this team the right fit for you?
Laviolette is taking on arguably the most intimidating job in the NHL right now. Here is a team that went from Eastern Conference finalists to first-round disappointments in the matter of one year. The Rangers have gone through two coaches in three seasons and their win-now mandate is no secret around the league.
What makes Laviolette the right man for the job? How does he feel about the challenge? Why will this partnership work?
The 58-year-old is going to have to sell himself a little bit in this press conference. That shouldn’t be hard given his résumé, but anything less than Laviolette showing the utmost confidence in himself would be off-putting.
2. With such a balance of veteran stars and young talent on this team, how do you balance the win-now initiative with development?
This question was the No. 1 burden on the previous two Rangers coaches, David Quinn and Gerard Gallant. It was difficult for either to find that healthy balance between staying competitive and giving opportunities to the next generation.
There is an art to making decisions that will not only keep the team on the upward trajectory that it wants to be on, but also create space for young talent to grow and seize their chance.
How does he see Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil contributing to this team? Will he spread out power-play minutes? Is he more inclined to ride out youngsters who are learning from their mistakes or make immediate changes?
With every year that passes, the contributions of the Rangers’ young core become more and more important. This team will not be able to get over the hump if the kids don’t fully come into their own and round out the lineup.
The Blueshirts need a coach with the right temperament and attitude when it comes to managing the youth in the organization. Quinn leaned more toward the development side and individual relationships, while Gallant prioritized winning over all. The Blueshirts simply need a happy medium between the two.
3. How will you adapt your usual systems and style to this roster?
The way the Rangers are currently constructed is quite unique. They have a top-heavy lineup with no real checking unit and a star goaltender that is one of the best last lines of defense around. The top-six is a bit homogenous, with highly skilled players who can get too fancy, and the defense is young, with some offensive-minded skaters.
Laviolette is known to put more of an emphasis on defensive structure, in addition to an aggressive forecheck, so it’ll be interesting to hear how he plans to implement that with this team.
What does he think this team should be doing more — or less — of? How does he envision this team playing every night? What does he think the team’s strengths are and how does he plan to get the most out of them?
4. What is your philosophy on having a matching/checking line?
Gallant is not a matchups guy, and that was fine until it wasn’t. There was more than one occasion where the opposition’s matchups gave certain Rangers fits and ultimately hindered the team as a whole. That’s what happens when so much of your offensive production is tied to select players.
The Rangers need a coach who is going to be able to recognize those instances and make in-game adjustments that help. On the other end of that, they also need a coach who is going to construct their own matching/checking line.
Does he even think the Rangers need that kind of unit? If so, who does he envision playing on it? Will he put emphasis on matchups in general?
5. What is the next step needed for this team to win a Stanley Cup?
In other words: What is the plan, Peter?
How is this Rangers team, which will need to dust itself off after last season, going to make it happen?
Laviolette knew what he was signing up for when he put pen to paper on this opportunity. The “Cup or Bust” phrase is thrown around a lot, but the Blueshirts are as close to that as any team in the NHL. It’s always been a results business, but Laviolette was hired to achieve the ultimate feat.
The Stanley Cup should be referenced many times on Tuesday. Laviolette cannot be afraid to say it.
The organization, the fans and New York City want to know how Laviolette is going to put the Rangers on the path to hoisting Lord Stanley next June. His evaluation of where they’re at, what they need and how they’re going to get there is going to be the most telling parts of his press conference.