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.

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.”

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.

Eric and Vlad from HockeyRodent’s messageboard have rightly corrected me. Player contracts in Hartford are two way. The numbers shown below are only paid should those players perform at Madison Square Garden. In actual fact, these players make a fraction of the salaries shown below whilst playing in Hartford.

Still, it’s not the actual pay out, it’s the thought that counts. The idea that Corey Potter’s check was close to Cally’s when he was called up to play on Broadway is the point. The idea that Pyatt would make more money per diem then Dubinsky is the point.

We learned to today from Steve Zipay that Glen Sather extended qualifying offers to Dubinsky, Callahan, Korpikoski, Potter and Boyle.  The minimum offer tendered has to be a ten percent increase to keep some of these players over the $660,000 minimum. 

Brandon Dubinsky ($633,333), Ryan Callahan ($575,000) and Potter ($535,000) all earned less than $660,000. The minimum raise they are due to receive is 10 percent. Boyle, obtained Saturday from Los Angeles, earned $750,000 and is due a five percent hike. Lauri Korpikoski, at $1.017 million, had to be matched.

Their numbers have yet to be revealed but  offering 10 percent over the pittance Dubinsky and Callahan made last year would be an insult. They have the right to reject Sather’s qualifying offer, rendering them free agents. If Sather dissed me and offered the minimum, fersure I would tell Sather to take his offer and stuff it.

To put this into perspective let’s look at the salaries of some of the players in Hartford this past season:

Anisimov 821,667
Sanguinetti 855,000
Potter 542,000
Zaborsky 653,333
Sauer 846,667
Pyatt 850,000
Dupont 850,000
Hiller 750,000

With the exception of Zaborsky and Potter, the Hartford players all earned more this season then heart and soul players like Dubi and Cally. Giving them a qualifying offer is meaningless. Sather would have to have offered each of these players in excess of a million to keep them sweet, maybe more.  If he doesn’t keep them, the fan base will place his balls in a vice from which I hope he cannot wriggle out.

If Sather’s is doling out the dollars to keep the fan’s favorite kids, where’s the money going to come from to get a goal scorer and a first pair D man? Will we get the numbers before Wednesday? Or,  do we just assume because of Sather’s cap constraints and bad contracts the Rangers won’t be players in the free agent action come Wednesday?

To add insult to potential injury, apparently Colton Orr is not going to be resigned. If I had any scoring talent, I wouldn’t want ot play for the Rangers without a resident enforcer. Every single skill player in the Atlantic Division is quaking in their skates since the Flyers dealt for Pronger. I guess Sather thinks Wade Redden is going to stand up to Pronger.

Sather has treated the Rangers like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. It’s just too bad the Ranger fans can’t sentence Sather to 150 years in retirement.

They say a gal can never have too many black tee shirts. Well, in my opinion the Rangers currently have too many black tee shirts in their drawers.  Among the  men in black  for the New York Rangers this season were Drury, Gomez, Nasland, Redden, Rozsival and Voros. Too bad Glen Sather paid Donna Karan prices for these guys and got Old Navy quality.

Color Avery, Callahan, Dubinsky, Girardi, Korpikoski, Lundqvist, Sjostrom, Staal, Zherdev and Valiquette blue. They are all worthy of  hangers in my Rangers armoire.  As unresricted free agents Antropov, Betts, Mara, Morris and Orr are in that red danger zone and may or may not be here come September.

Shopping requires money and in today’s economy one should pay in cash. Sather has proven that Jim Dolan has plenty of cash but the League won’t let him spend it. The Rangers have precious little cap space. They got lucky today when Marcus Nasland retired, thus saving the Rangers around $4 million in salary for next season. He’s off the books. In order to acquire the players needed to move this team forward and to re-sign their restricted free agents, the Rangers need to move a couple of big contracts. If you have a ceiling on what you can spend, it goes without saying that one must shop wisely.

I would not go after Kovalchuk now and trade away the farm for a guy that will be an unrestricted free agent next July. While it would be nice to get rid a big contract like Gomez or Rozsival, I would not be willing to sacrifice the additional players and picks that Waddell would want to accomplish such a trade.

Bringing in Brian Gionta to complement Gomez is like buying yet another overpriced black tee shirt. Gomez hasn’t really fit well with anyone since he arrived. Why continue to pound a square peg? At $7.25 million ridiculous dollars for the next four years Gomez clearly needs to be moved, even if it’s for little in return. Just getting his contract off the books will be worth it. If we can trade Gomez without losing too much as the sweetener, Sather should be all over it.

Wade Redden at $6.2 million for the next 4 years must be bought out. If Dolan’s money is no object, getting rid of Redden is truly addition by subtraction. Rozsival would be an easier move at $4 million. The Rangers might get something of value in return but I’m not so sure losing Rozsival is a good idea until we see if any of the kids in the system are ready to make the jump to the NHL. It might be smarter to keep Rozsival, at least until next year’s trade deadline.

Shopping the clearance racks isn’t always the wisest thing to do. Better to work with what you already have then to break the bank on a flashy new item. As I deduced two off seasons ago, Glen Sather is no woman. He failed to match his shoes and handbags back then when he acquired both Drury and Gomez. Let’s hope he doesn’t make that mistake again.

If Sather can clear the cap space, and that’s a really big  “if”, there are a lot of great unrestricted free agents out there. The question is how much will they want and who will be willing  to join the circus that is the “Tortorella and Avery Show” currently playing at Madison Square Garden. Stay tuned for “Shop ’til You Drop, Glen”.

As if  their performance against the hapless Avalanche on Saturday night wasn’t enough of a side show both during and after the game, the return Avery surely spells the addition of another ring to the circus that the New York Rangers has become. Why it’s enough to turn this previously ”Vanilla” team into “Rocky Road”.

My only question to Sather is, WIIFU? We have taken a huge problem off Dallas’ hands.  And although they still must pay half of Avery’s salary, surely something more must be coming the other way? So, what’s the deal? Are anymore shoes going to drop between the Rangers and Dallas?

Rumor had it that a plebiscite of the players was taken and Drury told Sather the players were unanimously against bringing back Avery. What does it say that Sather still claimed him despite the disapproval of the players? Was Sather’s decision made before the Dallas game in early February? What did he decide and when did he decide it?

Tortorella expressed his dislike for Avery on the air when he was commentating on the “Sloppy Seconds” situation back in December. Tortorella was brought in by Schoenfeld.  He’s Schoenfeld’s guy. Perhaps Sather sees Avery as his quid pro quo. In Avery, Sather has a thorn that he can bring up or send down at will. No other team in the NHL  will touch Avery.  Is Avery Sather’s scale tipper  in the balance of power?

And you all thought the Circus wasn’t coming to the Garden until March 26…

Carbonneau, who is every bit as much on the hot seat as is Tom Renney and as was Michel Therrien, asked his GM if he could send Sergei Kostitsyn down to the minors. Imagine that. Carbonneau had to ask permission. So that’s how it works in Montreal?

Tom Renney is taking tremendous heat for not benching players. He does not make them accountable. Please. If Sather were as hands on as Bob Gainey he would sit Drury, Gomez, Naslund, Voros , Kalinin and Redden. Wait. That’s a 1/4 of the team. Whose gonna fill those spots? I guess that’s Tom Renney’s problem. 

My esteemed host on this site, Joe McDonald, is calling for Sather to come out and either fire Renney or give him his vote of confidence. Glen should say yea or nay as to whether Renney will be the coach until the end of the season.

I’ll go one better then Joe. I’m calling Sather out to man up and take responsibility for his bad personnel decisions and those bad contracts. I’m calling Sather out to do the honorable thing with regard to his coach, his players and the fans and make some decisions. Stop hiding up in your luxury suite.

Come on Glen. Are you going to let Bob Gainey and the Canadiens show the once great Glen Sather how to run a hockey club?

I found this entry on the HF Boards on Monday. It was written by a poster named Lion Hound. This was his reaction to the game on Sunday against the Flyers. I will quote it in its entirety. Please keep in mind that this was written with the emotions we are all feeling, hurt, anger and disappointment. Please forgive the author for any spelling and syntax errors.

“This loss hit home pretty hard for me. At points of the game, I was so angry that I found myself holding back as I was about to either say or do something that I would later regret! Had seasons in my fam for 20 years now. Today was the first time I left (by my own power) before the game was over! For anyone else that was at the game, there were quite a few Flyer fans in the garden. Right in front of me were two, that were rubbing it in pretty good. I have no problem ribbin on fans when they come into the Garden, but I keep it freindly. Today, I was so pissed that I literally had to get up and leave. What made me most angry was the couple in front of me waiving goodbye, and standing and cheering when Henrik got pulled. In my younger days I think I would have dragged the guy by his hair and thrown him out myself, but…i guess in my older years I made it clear…”You’re winning the game, you are in our arena…enjoy the victory, but don’t provoke it…cause this can and will get ugly fast!” …After I said that, I sat back and just took a breath like…”Is this really worth it?”…

But as I left the arena, I looked around at all the little kids that were there today.(Day games always have a lot of children there)…but how are they going to understand when a fan gets up behind them screaming obsenities at Wade Redden, or Tom Renney? Monkey see monkey do…and I am pretty sure that all the dads there that went to the afternoon Matinee, dumped $200-$300 didn’t plan on taking thier kids to the game to have some loudmouth cursing up a storm to have a fire sale, to where the kid turns and asks his dad what the obsenities meant, and why is that guy yelling!…But the point is not to direct this at the fans. They are paying customers…but to me it is just terrible to see the the lazy uninspired play that they left on the ice today. I am not of the doom and gloom mode and try to stay on the positive side, but todays effort was putrid. And IMO this Organiation should be ashamed at what has transpired over the last 10 games or so.”

Every single person involved in the New York Rangers organization needs to read this. They need  to  realize that Lion Hound is one of their more supportive fans. For every fan like Lion Hound and myself, there are ten times as many mean spirited, nasty and angry fans out there who want Sather and Renney fired and a fire sale to ensue.

On a personal note, I would like to wish my husband a happy anniversary and thank him for  always being there for me and putting up with all my Ranger craziness.