This Memorial Day should ever be known in Ranger history as Black Monday, the day we lost Don Maloney.

Don Maloney is leaving the Rangers for a better position as General Manager with the Phoenix Coyotes. They are an organization in need of help and they are fortunate to have signed someone with the work ethic and the experience of Don Maloney. The Rangers loss is the Coyotes gain.

Since the day I first set eyes on Don Maloney, Dave’s kid brother, I was impressed with his hard work and his skill. To watch a 20 year old Don Maloney grow up a Ranger, eventually becoming the Assistant General Manager of the team has been a pleasure and a privilege.

Donny has been a role model for all the young men he has chosen to bring into the Ranger organization. His career as a hockey player speaks for itself. He worked hard. He maximized his assests. He was a good teammate and colleague. He’ll be the same as a General Manager.

I hope losing Donny doesn’t negatively impact the team. I hope the committment to rebuild isn’t lost in his wake. I hope someday Don will come home to us again.

I had the pleasure to meet and speak to Don on a few occasions. He was soft spoken, contemplative and engaging. Most of all, Don Maloney is a gentleman.

All the Success in the World to you, Don and my eternal thanks.

Posted under New York Rangers

I think it was time for Brian to retire. I respect Brian Leetch and I think he is one of the all time great defensemen in the NHL. What makes him so special are his accomplishments and his numbers as a Ranger, an American and a New Yorker.

Having said that, I hope Brian can put aside his hurt feelings and that they retire his number next season. Hopefully, a reconciliation and a socko ceremony will finally quel all the speculation about comebacks. It will give peace and closure to all those whining fans who have been spewing vitriol since he was traded to Toronto.

Every generation has their heros. Two of mine were Brad Park and Jean Ratelle from the late 60’s and early 70’s. Had they spent there entire careers with the Rangers, maybe their numbers would have been retired. They too were unceremoniusly traded to Boston amidst the outcry of outraged fans. Trades happen in hockey. It’s a part of the game. Whether the players coming the other way where worth the price is immaterial.

I hope they hold the Leetch Retirement party as early in the season as possible. Time to get it over and get over it. The last of the 94 Cup champions will go to the rafters. Knowing the MSG PR machine, the organization will schedule it for February to draw in the crowds if the Rangers aren’t having a good season. Another year, another dog and pony show.

Pretty soon some teams will run out of numbers to retire. New players will have to start wearing Roman numerals on their sweaters. Personally, after Leetch’s number is retired, I hope the league prohibits this practice. It just serves to tell other great players that their careers just weren’t worthy enough. Does that mean all the other great Ranger players of the past were unworthy just because they didn’t win the Stanley Cup ? I don’t think so.

Number retirements feed in to our our society’s penchant for superlatives. Good, better best. We never give it a rest.

Posted under New York Rangers

Last Saturday afternoon, the Sabres/Senators Eastern Conference Final Game was dropped by NBC at the conclusion of regulation time. NBC kindly explained that they had to go to their coverage of the Preakness.(Note: If NBC didn’t present its coverage of the Preakness in full, NBC would be in violation of their agreement with Thoroughbred Racing and its advertisers). Bill Clement explained that Versus would be picking up the coverage of the overtime.

For the rabid fan of NHL Hockey, it wasn’t a big problem. Most of us have Versus. All you had to do was change the channel. However, for the casual fan, it must have been a huge turn off. Imagine investing 2.5 hours in a sporting event only to be told you couldn’t see how it would end. That’s not the way for the NHL to win fans. Recall that the NHL has no formal agreement regarding how much they are being paid and how they are covered. The playoffs are being shown at the grace and favor of NBC. They can take hockey or leave it. They left it.

The radio talking heads were laughing at the NHL, supporting NBC in their decision to drop the game. The overtime game got less then a 1.5 share on Versus, as opposed to the Preakness which got a 5+ share for NBC. They went on to say the present format of the NHL playoffs precludes it from serious consideration from major networks. Major networks do not have the flexibiliy to continually alter their schedules for a sport with a tenuous running time. (Except for baseball, which is sacred in the lower 48).

The implication to me was that, in order to resolve this problem with NBC(any major network), the NHL should find a way to commit to a finite time for game play. The most obvious way to guarantee that a game concludes in under three hours is to determine a regulation tie with a shootout. Like it or not, this may eventually come to pass. If the NHL wants to compete with the other major sports, they may have no choice but to go to the shootout. The shooutout also solves another problem. Playing triple and quadruple overtimes exhausts the players. They turn up at the next game like raw meat.The quality of the play would be infinitely better if games were decided in less time.

Many fans will argue that to decide NHL playoff games in a shoot out would be akin to the before/after ramifications of the designated hitter rule in baseball. Like baseball. Hockey would never be the same. It would denigrate the game.. All that had gone before would retain an elevated status in the annuls of the NHL. Winning the Stanley Cup is about the grinding 16 game odyssey to Hockey Nirvana. To lessen the terms of the quest is unthinkable to NHL fans. Sure, the shootout in the regular season is exciting and has become popular. But, it has the allure of a Lindsay Lohan. It is cosmetic and shallow. To cheapen hockey’s legacy is a huge price to pay for television market share.

Picture Gary Bettman at the next Board of Governors meeting. He’s trying to convince them that the answer to all their television revenue problems is to institute the shoot out in the playoffs. Can’t you see him standing up, doing his best impression of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in Wall Street. Greed is Good. I bet they’d eat it up with a spoon.

Please. Don’t shoot me, I’m only the messenger.

Posted under Uncategorized

Reading between the lines, Don Maloney being considered for Phoenix GM job is an indication to me that he is being forced out. Why would he want to leave now when all the work he has put into player drafting and development is starting to pay off? The Rangers have made the playoffs two years in succession. Now, all of a sudden, he’s one of the last three candidates for the Phoenix GM job? Were I conspiracy theorist, I would say there is colusion on the part of Sather and Gretzsky to displace Maloney and hand his job to Messier. Nice of them to consider Donny in the final three. He probably won’t get the Phoenix job but it will soften the blow if Donny gets his walking papers from Sather.

How long would it be before AGM Messier forces Renney out and the team is run the Messier way? Everything that the present management and coaching staff has tried to build over the last three years will be subjugated to the will of Messier. How soon would it be before Messier’s entourage of friends and family takes over the team.

After the success of the past two seasons, the fans love this team and want to continue to support them. What recourse would the paying fans have if there is a change of managment and coaching? How many fans would protest by not re-upping their subscriptions? I fear the protesters would be in the minority because there are still soooo many fans that refuse to let 1994 take its place in history and move forward. Must the New York Rangers and their fans be beholden to Mark Messier in perpetuity?

Losing Maloney, and potentially the rest of the coaching staff, would be the wrong move at this time. Regardless of his Messianic hold over this franchise and its fans, making Moose AGM would be a prescription for disaster. Everything this team has achieved over the last two season would be in jeopardy. What would be the outcome of Messier locking horns with Jagr? Would Sather trade Jagr to Boston?

Messier was a great player and a great leader but he has no management experience. If Mark Messier wants to break into management, why isn’t his friend Wayne Gretzsky offering him the job in Phoenix?

Posted under New York Rangers

Yesterday, I received a thank you video via email from the Rangers. I believe it was sent to fans who left a message on the Rangers “Virtual Locker Room Wall”. But knowing the Rangers, they probably reached out to any fan for whom they had an email address.

www.newyorkrangers.com/team/playoffs07/wall/notes.…

The video was like the Rangers “on demand” videos on the NYR website. It featured Henrik, Shanny and Tom Renney thanking the fans. They had a photo montage showing “Playoff Balloon Drop”, the Rally Buses, assorted fans with painted faces and crowd shots at the Garden and the fans cheering the team during the playoffs.

It looked like it was done on Break Up Day as they were leaving Greenburgh for the last time. Just as our last act upon leaving the Garden was to cheer them, their last deed before they turned the lights out was to thank us, their fans.

The person or persons in management at the Garden who are responsible for Fan Relations do a fantastic job. They deserve our thanks for giving the fans the opportunity to meet the players and coaches. The Fan Forum during the lockout, Summer Fan Fest in Greenburgh, the subsciber events, the giveaways at the games, all these things have helped to forge a strong bond between this team and their fans.

This franchise makes it’s fans feel like a valued and cherished members of the team. The Garden is like a second home. The people who run the whole operation are the Dolan family. They write the checks. They make it all possible. Trying to please everyone can be a thankless job. I would like to thank the Dolans for attempting to put the best product on the ice that they possible can and for making the experience memorable.

September can’t come soon enough.

Posted under New York Rangers

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) -Green Day

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it’s worth it was worth all the while

It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Let’s Go Rangers!

Posted under New York Rangers

After last night’s disappointment, I needed some inspiration to write anything today. After sitting in work all day in a funk, this smug Islander fan I work with taunted me that the Rangers were finished after blowing Game 5 in the final seconds. I really dislike this guy and by doing that he even lowered my opinion of him (didn’t think that was possible).

Some fans feel better pointing the finger of blame. Others are ready to concede defeat and throw in the towel. Others, like myself, are just numb. I looked to my past entries for some comfort, some shread of the optimism I felt in the wake of being down two games to nil after the first two games in Buffalo. Ah, the good old days when optimism was possible. Last Saturday the Sabres, after all, still had to win two more games. The Rangers must win tomorrow or their season will be over.

As I was leaving work, I received a phone call from out of the blue. It was my friend Scott. Some of you may know him as RedlightNYR from Hockeybird. Scott reminded me of how far this Ranger team has come, of how hard they have worked. They haven’t given up and neither should we. He reminded me of all the ups and downs of this season, what a wild rollercoaster ride it has been. Finally, he reminded me that after a drought of 9 seasons, the Rangers made the playoffs last year and have gone even further this year.

These are the things that should fuel our optimism. He urged me to get on the Bus and go into the Garden tomorrow just as pumped up as we were last Sunday. Nothing is over until the Rangers say it is. Even if the puck doesn’t bounce our way, the Rangers and their coaches can be proud of the job they have done. Our future is bright and filled with young, eager and talented kids who want nothing else but to prove they are capable of proudly wearing Broadway Blue, of playing in the big show.

Win or lose, we must show our team that we are behind them now and for the future. The dark days are well behind us. Our future is brighter then it has been in a long time. They have their work cut out for them and so have we. It may be a little tacky to quote oneself but I must repeat what I wrote a mere week ago tomorrow:

“Tomorrow is the time to show the Buffalo Sabres that when they play the New York Rangers, they are playing more then just 23 men in Blueshirts. They are up against 18,200 people who support their team through the best and worst of times. They will have to play in front of a house full of people who want the Sabres to lose.Tomorrow is the time for the fans to be so loud and so intense as to be a distraction for the Sabres. Tomorrow is the time for the fans to put Miller and the Sabres off their game. Tomorrow is the time for us to lift the roof off the Garden.I will never forget the final playoff game last season. Inspite of being swept by the Devils, the True Blue fans gave the Rangers one last cheer in appreciation for the season. It was the classiest thing I have ever witnessed in sports.God’s Speed Boys.