Since February 23 I have been trying to put on a good face as a Ranger fan. As a season subscriber, I still had games to go to. As a Ranger fan, there were still young men on the Rangers that I wanted to support. But when that day in February came, my commitment to this Ranger team switched off inside my head. Nothing that has transpired since to turn it back on.
Quite amazingly, the Rangers earned a playoff spot with only two games left on their season. At that time, I predicted the Capitals would defeat the Rangers in five games. You could have knocked me over with a feather if you had told me then that the Rangers would take it to seven. Even more surprising was going up 3-1 in the series. But the final outcome shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
The same players who failed to show up and play with heart during the regular season reverted back to their true selves. As I predicted, John Tortorella would behave in some way that would bring controversy and ignominy down on this franchise. The only pleasant surprise is that Sean Avery came back  to provide the “Avery Effect”,  that is until he was benched by a man who has even less self-discipline then Avery.
So the Rangers are out of the playoffs and they have the large, unmovable contracts of their “veteran leaders” to look forward to next season. The Rangers, by not making the second round, have  regressed. Hell, this team is worse off then in 2004. At least Sather was able to hold the Fire Sale that got us picks and prospects and hope for the future.
What hope for the future do we have now? If we can’t move deadbeats like Redden, Gomez, Naslund and Drury, we won’t be able to resign the kids we do want to keep because there’s no space under the salary cap. And, even if we manage to resign them, whose going to nuture the young talent and bring it along? John Tortorella? Jim Schoenfeld? The rebuild ended when Renney was shown the door on February 23.Â
In the every cloud has a silver lining department, at least I don’t have to give Dolan anymore of my money for his overpriced playoff tickets. And, re-upping my subscription while Glen Sather is still GM of the Rangers is going to be a serious decision I’ll have to make come August. I am sure in this economy, many fans are in the same boat.
I can’t see anything happening in the off season to turn the switch back on.
Posted under New York Rangers
This post was written by m hurley on April 28, 2009
When Chris Drury was hurt, I figured they’d go out in four unless Theodore was atrocious and Lundqvist was red-hot. Theodore was replaced by a talented rookie and Lundqvist went into the deep freeze in the fifth game.
When Carolina won the cup they were a 60-minute team. I said to my son, a Pens’ fan, the Canes are playing like they did then. The last time the Rangers were in Carolina, the score was tied going into the third period. As the play went on, the announcers said, the Rangers are trying to play a style which they don’t the conditioning for. You cannot pick it up on the fly, you have to start at training camp. They’ll get tired and the Canes should win this game. That’s exactly what happened in that game. It’s what happened in the final game with the Caps. One shot in the third period? Contrast that with that 60-minute team in New Jersey.
This team was built wrong from the start. Naslund had Bertuzzi riding shotgun for him in his best years. He almost killed for him. He was never going to replace Jagr as a sniper. I thought they should have gone after someone like Ryder. They had no sniper, they had no leader, passing on Shanahan. They did settle down the defence by replacing Kalinen with Morris, but they needed a seventh D, Strudwick, to set up a rotation to keep everyone on their toes.
They gave it everything they had. Federov scored a goal exactly like that against Giguere back in 2003 and did it from memory. There was no horrendous meltdown in the final game as with the Flyers, as with the Sharks, as with the Canadiens, as with the Flames, as with the Devils. They leave with a good taste in their mouths.
Spector of Fox News said after the sixth game that Lundqvist was exhausted. He was okay until the fourth game. He wasn’t exhausted. He has yet to prove himself as a playoff goaltender. I think if they want to get serious about a Cup run, they have to do what the Ducks did, find someone who can take over if he suddenly goes cold. Not easy to find, but it’s not Valiquette. And if Drury had been healthy? Probably the same outcome. As Schoenfeld said, some guys were gassed. This after six measly games. They lacked conditioning.
As for the coach, leaving Keenan aside, Tortorella is the best thing that’s happened to this team since Fred Shero (no Davidson wasn’t that good) or even Emile Francis (Giacomin was.)
I agree with you on almost all points except for Tortorella. He’s an embarrassment and I would never characterize him as the best thing to happen to the Rangers since Shero. That’s an insult to Shero.
Not playing Avery in Game 5 was more boneheaded then Renney playing Ryan Hollweg during last years playoffs. Tortorella is a loose cannon. Sure, he wins the Stanley Cups with Vinny, St Louis, Richard, Khabby and great leadership under Andrychuk. Save for Henrik, he’s has no one on this club that fills those roles right now or in the foreseeable future.
As far as goaltending goes, I was thinking exactly the same thing. Goaltender platooning hasn’t been a common thing in the NHL recently. But a rock solid #2 is absolutley necessary to have success. Henrik can’t be expected to make balls to the wall stretch runs and then have to play every playoff game lights out.
It also wouldn’t hurt if the team in fromt of him could lock a playoff spot with 10 games to go instead of two. I hope the kid isn’t injured badly. His shoudler probably is messed up after he got run into late in the season.
I’m hoping Osgood and Conklin can get it done in Hockeytown. Now there’s a goaltending team that has no ego. They just get it done.
Let’s Go Wings and Canes!
PS. It does make me feel better to know that the Canadiens and the Devils are out. Ya think Lou would take back Gomez and give us Clemmenson?
We’ll have to disagree on Tortorella. Time will tell. They have a mess with the cap but they have to build a PP. But Henrik is no John Grahame or Marc Denis. It’s easier to find a sniper than a goalie. Tortorella turned Vinny Lecavalier into a complete player and it was an ongoing soap opera until that happened.
No one would hire Shero for a long time because they regarded him as a nut as well. It didn’t hurt to have a fellow nut Bobby Clarke leading his team.
The Wings, in retrospect, had an easy time last year once Osgood settled in. They were too much for Nashville and Colorado and Dallas arrived beat up. Anaheim’s big line Getzlaf, Perry, and Ryan is going to bang Hossa et all from pillar to post, the post being Pronger. Hiller is playing like Giguere, deja vu all over again, it must be the goalie coach there. And Selanne has yet to break out. He’s finally got a centre, the shrimp Ebbett he can play with, which he didn’t have after McDonald was let go. This is not an eighth seed team since their D with Beauchemin (who had been injured), Whitney, and Wisniewski all came at the trading deadline and they are rock solid,. Hedican is still hurt but may be back. He went out there because his wife, who won the Dancing With The Stars, wanted to be close to home. This should be a great series.
As I say when I saw that Drury was injured, I didn’t have much expectations so I don’t feel let down this year, particulary since they put up a good effort in the final game. And it wasn’t a fluke goal or a stupid penalty that beat them, but Federov. Henrik saw the shot.
Clemmenson would be great, but the Devils would be stupid to let him go and keep Weekes.