I look forward to the Winter Olympics every four years. Ordinarily, I am a little sad when the games are over. Not so this year. I am glad I won’t have to listen to the annoying  Bob Costas or see the cast of the Today Show in mittens and silly hats until 2014.

Commenting on the Olympics would take up too much time and space on this blog, so I’ll spare you all my diatribe. If you really care about what I thought about figure skating and hockey, go look at the Olympic threads on HockeyRodent’s messageboards. It’s over and the wrong team won the Gold medal. The only burning question I have about these Olympics is “why hasn’t Chris Drury ever played for the Rangers with the same amount of energy and passion as he played for Team USA?  

Now we have the last 20 games of this Ranger season to endure. Short of a miracle, the Rangers will not make the playoffs. The Rangers currently sit in tenth place in the Eastern Conference with 63 point. They are separated from Montreal, in eighth place, by one point with one game in hand. If 94 points is indeed the magic number to attain a playoff berth, the Rangers essentially need to win 16 out of their last 20 games to reach that last spot.

With John “Run and Gun” Tortorella at the helm, the odds of the Rangers going on a “Renney” run to  the finish line are long. On the season, the Rangers are a -11 in Renney’s “six points in five games” model. Last time I looked, Sean Avery is currently a Ranger.  He can’t be added to provide an Avery effect. Frankly, I’m afraid of what Sather might do to spark a playoff run.

His latest coup was to pick up Alex Auld to back up Henrik. If Henrik really has some sort of groin injury that has been plagueing him most of the season, Auld might be a good acquisition to backstop the Rangers until their first tee time on April 12th. Unless Sather can waive, unload or send down Redden, Rozsival, Drury (insert name here) at the trade deadline, I pray God he doesn’t do anything stupid by trading the Ranger’s future for a quick fix now. There is no quick fix for now.

The next most important move for Ranger fans is to wholeheartedly support Mike Zippo’s ”Fire Sather” movement by signing his online petition and/or attending the “Fire Sather” Rally outside the Garden this Sunday before the Rangers vs Buffalo game.

Fire Sather Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/firesather/

Fire Sather Rally Information:

 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=272851463916&ref=ts

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