John McEnroe interrupts Australian Open commentary in sudden turn | Tennis | Sport
John McEnroe briefly forgot which sport he was covering. During ESPN’s Australian Open coverage on Tuesday, the tennis icon, who recently delivered home truths to Novak Djokovic, interrupted live commentary to voice his disappointment about an entirely different sport.
What started as a standard promotional segment for upcoming NHL matches quickly evolved into an impromptu, “depressing” tirade against the New York Rangers. McEnroe was commentating alongside Mike Monaco for the men’s singles first-round clash between Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Hanfmann when Monaco previewed ESPN’s upcoming hockey fixtures.
None of the advertised matches featured the Rangers, a detail that provided an opening for McEnroe, a New York native and lifelong supporter of the club. “Sounds like the Rangers are gonna be in sell mode,” Monaco remarked, alluding to a recent correspondence from Rangers general manager Chris Drury that acknowledged the necessity to “retool the team” during a catastrophic season.
McEnroe instantly interjected. “I saw that, that’s really depressing,” he said. “What is going on with the Rangers?”
Rather than returning to the tennis action at Rod Laver Arena, the commentary partnership remained focused on New York’s woes. The Rangers began the week as the sixth-poorest performing team in the NHL and bottom of their division, a remarkable decline for a franchise that secured the Presidents’ Trophy merely two seasons prior.
“To me, when they traded [former defenseman Jacob] Trouba, I was bummed,” McEnroe continued. “They’re getting rid of all their guys. He was their captain.”
Monaco pointed out that the Rangers also offloaded long-serving captain Chris Kreider earlier this campaign and recently appointed a new head coach in Mike Sullivan, further evidence of significant organisational change. But McEnroe hadn’t finished.
“They do a lot of re-cycling, the coaches in the NHL, don’t they?” McEnroe remarked.
When Monaco responded that the typical NHL coach lasts “three years tops,” McEnroe delivered his verdict. Coaches, he observed, “go somewhere else, fail up.”
The Rangers’ decline has been dramatic. After topping the league in points during the 2023-24 campaign, New York began this week with a 21-24-6 record, placing the side near the foot of the Metropolitan Division and comfortably outside playoff contention at the season’s halfway stage.
The franchise hasn’t lifted a Stanley Cup since 1994 and hasn’t appeared in the final since 2014. The side has shipped more goals than it has netted, and is 1-6-1 across its previous eight matches.
In the tennis, Alcaraz ended up winning the match comfortably 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-2 to set up a third-round clash with Corentin Moutet.
