from Mollie Walker of the New York Post,

Luckily for the Rangers, the coaching staff is beginning to figure out what approach is most effective with the young Finn and how to bring the best out of him.

“About 2 ¹/₂ weeks ago, I told him I wasn’t going to talk to him anymore,” coach David Quinn said following practice Wednesday. “I’m not joking when I say that. I literally felt that as a staff we really wanted him to be good so fast and all of us were spending a lot of time with him. You could just see it in his face. Finally, I told our whole staff [to lay off of him]. I said to him, ‘The only thing I’m going to say to you is hello.’

“The one thing I will say [to Kakko], I’ll talk about effort and being physical, those are the only two things we’ll talk about. I said, ‘But we’ve got to let you play.’ I think that might’ve helped him a little bit, but I also think adapting to the NHL is hard for any 18-year-old. Sometimes the best coaching is no coaching and I think this is an example.”

Quinn wouldn’t say if that was a direct result of Kakko’s recent success, but it’s hard to ignore the difference it’s made. At first, the second-year coach experimented with Kakko on the top two lines. But after posting just three points and a collective minus-12 rating through the season’s first 10 games, Kakko was demoted — something that probably seemed more detrimental to him in his first NHL season.

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