The former captain of the Rangers unveils a 5 step plan to fix his former team.

The New York Rangers still have 2 games left on their regular season schedule, a game on Monday against the Florida Panthers and their final game of the regular season on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but as far as their fan base is concerned the season is already over.

Over the weekend the Rangers were officially eliminated from playoff contention and the fallout from that result, fresh off of a president’s trophy winning season, has been widespread. We’ve already seen head coach Peter Laviolette address calls for his job, and now one of the most well-respected players in franchise history is speaking out.

Over the weekend, Rangers legend Mark Messier laid out a 5 step plan on how to fix his former team and discussed that plan on the ESPN broadcast. Here is a look at the 5 steps Messier believes the Rangers must take:

#1 Identify a captain/leader.

Messier made it clear that he believes finding a leader should be the top priority for this team, an indication that Messier believes the team is suffering from a lack of leadership.

“The number one thing that I think they need to think about is identifying a captain and a leader,” said Messier. “Identifying the captain and leader is a must.”

#2 Create an identity.

While Messier acknowledged that the team had found its identity last season when they won the President’s Trophy, he indicated that he believes some of the moves made this season stripped that from the Rangers.

“You’ve got to create the identity of how you’re gonna play,” said Messier. “All that’s gone and disappeared.”

#3 Define a nucleus to drive culture.

Much like with his second point, Messier pointed to the fact that a number of disruptive trades during the season may have hampered the Rangers ability to define their core group and their culture.

“You gotta define the nucleus to drive the culture,” said Messier. “Where was that nucleus? It was disrupted this year with a couple of trades they made. So the nucleus this year that drives culture has been vacant for the New York Rangers.”

#4 Push youth into more important roles.

Perhaps the point that Messier put the most emphasis on was a push towards a youth movement. The former Rangers captain believes it is time for some of the more veteran players to step aside to make room for the younger players on the Rangers roster.

“You gotta keep pushing the youth up,” said Messier. “You gotta replace some of the veterans that are getting a little bit older in their careers. You gotta continue to elevate and push those guys so the veteran guys become more secondary.”

#5 Replace the bad body language.

Messier was clearly not impressed by the team’s body language this season and feels that needs to change, however he indicated that following the first four steps would correct this final step on its own.

“All that will replace the bad body language that we have seen from the Rangers all year long,” said Messier. “The bad body language was a result of all the lacking things.”

You can hear the segment as well as Messier’s breakdown in his own words in the short clip below.

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