Yesterday, New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather went on a free agent shopping spree. To the surprise of just about everyone, Sather landed two of the three best Free Agent Centers on the market. This is quite a coup for the inscrutable deal maker. In an effort to make a more successful run at the Stanley Cup next season, Sather spent a boatload of Jimmy Dolan’s money and came up smelling like a rose.

The only drawback was the length of the Gomez contract. The bar on salary had been set earlier in the day when the Philadelphia Flyers reeled in Daniel Briere. No one could accuse Sather of driving up prices. He paid the fair market value for Gomez and Drury. Sather even went against principle and gave Drury a “no movement ” clause. Indeed, July 1 , 2007 was an historic day.

So, what’s not to like? As if paying a 13 goal scorer $51 million dollars over 7 years is not bad enough, many Ranger fans cannot see with clarity who will be centering whom next season. That’s where our title here comes in. Do the new shoes match the handbags?

No fashion conscious woman would leave the house with a black handbag and brown shoes. It’s gauche. It is a fashion faux pas. Many women will buy two pairs of shoes in different colors when they find shoes that are attractive and comfortable. They will make a mental note of what handbags they have in their closet before they make their purchase. The brown shoes with the Louis Vuitton bag. The black shoes with the Coach bag.

Clearly, Glen Sather is not a woman. Not only did he NOT look in the closet before he went shopping, he (gasp) paid RETAIL. Glen clearly has gone for the trendy fashionable shoe (Gomez) that might be out of style before the Amex bill is paid off.

Chris Drury is clearly the reliable black shoe to Shanahan, the black Coach bag. Drury is the North American (North/South playing) shoe that will complement Shanahan well. But, is Scott Gomez the brown shoe we need to compliment the very European Vuitton bag we have in Jaromir Jagr. Clearly, Jagr is the superstar here who should not have to acquiese to young Gomez, an American North American player.

Losing Nylander as the center of Jagr’s eurocentric East/West style of play might be traumatic for our Superstar and detrimental to his production. Will Renney be trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole come September? Can we dye Gomez Brown?

 

Add to Yahoo Add to Google Furl this Add to Spurl Save to Del.icio.us Digg IT! Live Bookmarks! Blogmarks