As the Rangers continue to struggle, a widely repeated narrative has surfaced in hockey discussions: that their decline from last season was inevitable due to Laviolette’s history of second-season regression with other teams. This explanation has been frequently cited since the Rangers’ slump from a 12-4-1 record to 15-15-1, to the point where it almost seems accepted as fact. However, this narrative is largely inaccurate, and in reality, the opposite has often been true in many instances.