I have recently contributed an article to HockeyBarn and for lack of anything new on the Ranger front, I thought I’d post it here for everyone’s reading enjoyment. They  feature a Monday blogdown on a different topic every week. This week’s topic is Hockey ala Obama vs. Putin.

Y’all got anything better to do? I didn’t think so. Seriously, take a gander at HockeyBarn and see what the other swell writers over there had to say on the subject.

http://hockeybarn.com/

Putin vs. Obama: Rubles or Bucks

No league, either on the North American continent nor anywhere else, has yet been able to successfully hold its own against the NHL. The WHL tried and failed. It’s almost comical to think that Russia can get the existing teams in the Western Europe to join an Axis of Hockey, the Kontinental League. The countries in the European Union trust Russia as much as the ASPCA trusts Michael Vick.

Players like Jaromir Jagr might have been lured to play in Siberia for a gozillion rubles but how do we know if Jagr actually got all the money he signed on for? I doubt if they have the FDIC in the former CCCP. How do we know those checks didn’t bounce like unfrozen pucks?

If a player were going to sign on to play on an expansion team, why the hell would they want to play in Vladivostok? Do they appreciate hockey more in the Caucuses then they do in Winnipeg or Saskatoon? At least if you’re going to freeze your assets off, it should be in a city north of the 49th parallel. Hell, I’d take Phoenix or Sunrise over Stalingrad or Leningrad.

Then, there’s the question of health care. Barak wants every American to have access to baseline health care. Baseline health care in the USA would be Mayo Clinic quality compared to medical facilities in the former Soviet Union. I wonder if they still reuse hypodermic needles in Russian hospitals?

If it’s true that hockey players must defer to their wives as to where they play (I heard that Jeremy Roenick’s wife only approved of where he played if the area had a world class equestrian center), I doubt any western woman is going to want to play in some backwater hamlet in the Urals that is devoid of a Neiman Marcus or Louis Vuiton.

If  one were to put Putin and Obama behind their respective leagues benches, Barak would run his team like Mike Babcock and Putin would be like Lou Lamarillo. Barak would command the respect of his players with a tough but fair system. Putin would dictate to everyone in the organization and rule with an iron fist. Democracy vs Totalitarianism.

Because he is a megalomaniac, Putin would not be smart enough to hire a Commisioner who would take the heat off of him and be universally despised by the fan base at the same time. In other words, short of  exhuming Rasputin, Russia doesn’t have an answer to a Gary Bettman.

Russia has an unstable government, an insecure economy, bad health care, a terrible national airline and few western amenities. No amount of money could induce a North American hockey player or a European player in their right  mind to choose Russia as their place of residence for a long term contract.

Lastly, only the National Hockey League has the most prized trophy in all sports, the Stanley Cup. What trophy would the KHL compete for? A Faberge Egg?  A Golden Blini? A Silver Hammer and Sickle? I don’t think so.

Posted under New York Rangers

Why is Glen Sather like a hockey bulimic? 

Because he’s binged and purged more players then any other GM in Ranger history!

After today’s dealings, Sather has managed to purge the Rangers of every post lockout veteran except Henrik Lundqvist. While today’s signing of Ales Kotalik for 3 years at $3 million per year doesn’t exactly constitute a binge, Sather has most assuredly purged Nik Zherdev from next season’s roster. Frankly, I think Sather made the right decision. I have grown weary of having players on the Rangers who are oft described as “enigmatic”.

In an attempt to garner more players for John Tortorella’s run and gun scoring style of play, Sather has disassembled what was one of the best penalty killing units in the NHL. Gone are Sjostrom and Orr. With the signing of Brashear, one can only assume that free agent Blair Betts will not be made an offer to return. Now the question remains whether all the new additions to the Rangers can score enough goals on the powerplay to make up for what might be a much diminished penalty kill.

I suppose it makes life more interesting getting to know all the new boys, their styles of play, their personalities. I wonder if any other team has experienced such a total turnover of personal in the last four years. I remember being at the Nassau Mausoleum and phoning in the player numbers to the HockeyRodent so he could keep the fans informed about the 2005-2006 Rangers. Now, I’ll have to memorize a whole bunch of new numbers but this time I can text them to his Rodentness.

Let’s pretend today is the first day of the preseason. Who could we be seeing in September?

Ales Kotalik RW
Marian Gaborik RW
23 Chris Drury LW
Chris Higgins C
16 Sean Avery LW
Matthew Gilroy C
Donald Brashear LW
34 Aaron Voros LW
Artem Anisimov C
Nikolai Zherdev RW RFA*
29 Lauri Korpikoski LW RFA
17 Brandon Dubinsky C RFA
24 Ryan Callahan RW RFA*

6 Wade Redden D
3 Michal Rozsival D
5 Dan Girardi D
Bobby Sanguinetti D
Michael Sauer D
18 Marc Staal D

30 Lundqvist G
40 Valliquette G

Save for Chris Higgins, that’s a whole lot of right wings and centers and not many left wings. Dany Heatley is still out there but I doubt Sather has enough cap space to make that happen without unloading Rozsival and sacrificing youth. Sather has used restraint and held on to the youths. Let’s hope he can add more finesse to the top left and keep the kids, too.

Who knows how many more moves Sather will make before training camp opens?  At least it’s comforting to know that Sather isn’t in a river somewhere casting a line. He might finally be earning his keep.

Posted under New York Rangers

For ever since I can remember, and that’s about 50 years worth of memories, Ranger fans have bemoaned the fact the their teams have been soft. They weren’t willing to stick up for each other.

The classic case in point was the Dave Schultz/Dale Rolfe “incident” back at the Spectrum during the 1974 Playoffs.  For those of you too young to remember, Dave “the Hammer” Schultz, one of the biggest goons and greatest enforcers of all time, beat the snot out of Dale Rolfe while the rest of Rolfe’s Ranger teammates watch Dale take the beat down.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/sports/1996/11/03/1996-11-03_beaten_rolfe_not_sore.html

It was one of the darkest and most embarrassing days in Ranger History. It cemented the idea,  for the next twenty years, that the Rangers were the pussiest team in the NHL. It signaled to other teams that they could run Ranger skill players at will. The Rangers notoriously would not stand up for each other. Until Messier, Kocur and Graves and the rest of what became the ’94 Cup team came along, this indictment proved true.

After the gradual demise of the 94 team (the exit of  Messier to Vancouver), the mercenaries brought in by Sather failed to stand up for themselves, no less anyone else. The Rangers went seven season without making the playoffs. After the lockout, players like Kaparaitis and Strudwick brought a little heart and snarl back to the team. But, you didn’t see  any Ranger deliberately retaliate against goonery until Brendan Shanahan’s main bout at center ice with, of all people, Donald Brashear (who was then a Cap but once was a Philadelphia Flyer).

In a move that stunned and angered the fan base, Glen Sather sign a two year, $1.4  million dollar contract with free agent Donald Brashear on July 1. Fan favorite Colton Orr signed for four years with Toronto at $1 million per year.  How could Sather sign the player that hit Blair Betts during the playoff, breaking his orbital bone.

Brashear was suspended for 6 games and Betts was gone for the rest of the playoffs.  Why hire the biggest goon in hockey when we had a perfectly adequate enforcer in Orr?  Apparently, Orr did not inspire fear in Brashear, otherwise Brashear would have thought twice about running Betts. 

In today’s New York Post, Larry Brooks skewers Glen Sather and Ranger management over the recent acquisition of Donald Brashear.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07052009/sports/rangers/rangersbroke_bond_by_signing_thug_brash_177650.htm

RANGERS BROKE BOND BY SIGNING THUG BRASHEAR

“represents an indelible stain on the family concept preached by head coach John Tortorella. “

“Brashear is no better player than Colton Orr, the enforcer he replaces, despite the propaganda disseminated by the front office. He’s an oafish fourth-liner who will get approximately eight minutes a night and will be expected to inflict serious damage on the opposition. He’ll no doubt be suspended during the season. “

I don’t believe Larry Brooks doubts that Brashear will be just the deterrent the Rangers need to keep tough guys like Pronger (now a Flyer) from taking a run at their talent ( ie, the fragile Marian Gaborik). And, I don’t doubt “the Donald” might be suspended this coming season. I felt the same way about Tortorella when Sather hired him. Sure enough, it came to pass during the playoffs that Tortorella threw the bottle and got suspended. Larry, once again, needed to fill column inches and saw the signing of Brashear as a perfect opportunity to take shots at two people he dislikes,  Sather and Dolan.

To Larry Brooks and those angry Ranger Fans out there I ask, how was what Brashear did to Betts any worse then what Stevens did to Lindros or Kariya? I don’t know Steven’s personal story. Did he have as horrendous a childhood and upbringing as Brashear? Mark Messier wasn’t adverse to putting a well timed elbow into someones noggin. But, Stevens and Messier had skills. Brashear doesn’t. So I guess that made it okay

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050104147.html?sid=ST2009050104383

Brashear hits people and intimidates them. If you are going to try this man in the hockey court of public opiniion, how do Brashear’s offenses stack up against other perps (aforementioned or not)?  Has Brashear ever deliberately and with malice aforethought done to another player what a Bertuzzi or Simon did? Has he done to another player what McSorley did to Brashear himself?

Brashear throws high hits. He intimidates. So have lots of other players over the history of the NHL. But at some points in time, many fans would loved to have had a Stevens or a Bertuzzi or a Messier on their team.

Some Ranger fans are now indignant about Brashear. Other teams players and  fans may not like or respect Brashear but they’ll know when he’s out on the ice. Maybe, for once in a very long time, skill players on the Rangers can breathe a bit easier knowing that Brashear can checkmate other teams goons.

As for Dale Rolfe, the last paragraph of that linked article is very telling:

Rolfe said he has never had a conversation with Schultz in his life, except to say good luck during the handshake after the game. What would he do if he met Schultz now?

“I’d probably have a beer with him,” he said. Asked if there were any hard feelings, Rolfe said, “How could there be hard feelings? The man was doing his job. I was doing my job. It was a game.”

Posted under New York Rangers

Marian Hossa is one ungrateful dude. After the Rangers tried their best (unsuccessfully) to mold his little brother into an NHL caliber player, Marian goes and signs with the Chicago Blackhawks. In his relentless quest to play for a contender, Hossa asked his agent to “show me the money”. Chicago did. If he never wins a Cup at least he can pad his IRA and live out his old age in comfort back in Stara.

And so, as Dany Heatley jerked the chain of the Senators and the other teams that would take on his headache, Glen Sather needed to bust a move on a pure goal scorer. After all, there’s fly fishing to be done and the quicker the free agent signings go, the faster Sather can slither into his hip waders. But I digress.

So Sather makes the other Marian an offer he can’t refuse and, viola, a big part of Sather’s job is done. Like everything Sather does, this signing could be minimal reward and maximum risk. After all, Glen’s giving Gaborik $250,000 more per year for the next five years then was committed to Gomez. Where’s the money going to come from to get a first pair defenseman? And while the length of the contract is not unmanageable, Gaborik has proven so far to made of glass. Glen’s a gambler. 

Notwithstanding what could turn out, barring injury, to be a decent signing, Sather defies our imagination and probably makes his worst signing so far as the Rangers GM. What in God’s name is Sather thinking, letting Colton Orr go and signing the filthiest goon of all time, Donald Brashear? I know the Rangers need a new player rep for Ice Hockey In Harlem now that Gomez is gone but this is ridiculous. I honestly think the Brashear signing is worse then Redden. Brashear will take more stupid penalties then Ryan Hollweg with about the same offensive upside as Hollweg.

I understand that with Pronger now in Philadelphia all the Atlantic Division teams had to up their enforcer quotient. I would have rolled the dice with a fan favorite like Orr rather then the most despised goon in the league. I guess Sather really isn’t going to resign Blair Betts now. How could he after what Brashear did in the playoffs? Brashear is more hated then Bobby Clarke, Dave Schultz and Ken “the Rat” Linesmen were in their day (curiously all Flyers). Donald Brashear is unworthy to wear the Ranger uniform

Surely more shoes are going to drop  as Free Agent Frenzy continues. But, in signing Brashear, one has to think a shoe was dropped on Sather’s head. It’s always one step forward and two steps back with the Glen Sather Side Show.

Posted under New York Rangers