By Evangelos Pericles Malakates
“The waiting is over!” These were the words of New York Rangers broadcaster Sam Rosen in 1994 when the Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals.
Rosen was referring to the 54 years between Rangers Stanley Cup titles and the feeling was euphoric. To see the captain Mark Messier raise Lord Stanley’s cup was a sight I will never forget and to be quite honest, I cried like a little girl who just scraped her knee.
As we approach the end of the National Hockey League regular season, the Rangers own the league’s highest payroll, yet they are about to miss the postseason for a franchise record seventh straight season.
My question is, when will the Rangers realize what it takes to win in this league? It takes timely, not desperate trades. It takes youth and intelligent drafting. Most of all, it takes heart and this is something the Rangers don’t know a damn thing about.
The Rangers brass has the mentality of a 10-year old. Throw a bunch of superstars together and the results will be magnificent. I mean how can a team with Jagr, the 43-year-old Messier, Bobby Holik and a multitude of other serviceable players lose as gracefully as these Rangers do.
When the Rangers won the Cup in 1994, free agency was a non-issue. Players weren’t being thrown ridiculous amounts of money and the Rangers were a conglomerate of young and old players who were imported from other teams or home grown. But things sure have changed at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
The Rangers don’t hesitate when an opportunity presents itself for a star to be brought in at the expense of stars of the future. This is wrong and until this mentality is changed (i.e. firing President and general manager Glen Sather,) Ranger fans will continue to wait.
Just look around the league and you will see the light. The Nashville Predators, an expansion team created in the 1998-1999 season, are going to make the playoffs this year with a roster full of no-names and only four players at or over the age of 30.
The Rangers, on the other hand, have a record of (23-31-7-5) and if they hadn’t swept all six games against the New York Islanders this year, they would have a win total in the teens right now. Sure, you certainly need veteran leadership on any solid team, but with 14 players over the age of 30, and one in Messier, who will be collecting social security soon, you’ve got big problems and a change must be made.
Just when I thought it could only get worse for the Rangers, they actually did something right. On Tuesday night, after a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Atlanta Thrashers, Sather traded Alexei Kovalev to the Montreal Canadiens, who are in the midst of a playoff race.
Yes Ranger fans, the Broadway Blueshirts traded away Kovalev for nothing. No big name player with a big contract, no over-the-hill goaltender who should hang up the pads, they traded him for nothing.
Well you may be asking yourself, what are we, nuts? How could we trade Kovalev he’s great. You are right, he is great, but the Rangers are not and it’s time to trade players with any type of value for nothing.
The nothing the Rangers got for Kovalev was prospect Josef Balej and a second round draft pick in the upcoming draft. Balej, 22, was Montreal’s third-round pick in the 2000 draft and led his team, the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL, in every offensive category this season. In just 55 games for the Bulldogs, Balej scored 25 goals, dished out 33 assists and tallied a plus-19 rating.
In order to fix the Rangers, you have to blow them up. This means trading away players who can help a playoff team make a push for the Cup and bring in promising talent, which the Rangers have so foolishly let go in the past.
If you are a true fan of any New York sports team, you will agree with me on this. It makes me sick to my stomach when I hear that rebuilding in New York City is impossible. The fans won’t stand for it, nor should they. This is my message to anyone who can’t bear sitting through a few rebuilding seasons. Go take your “gotta win now” mentality and go stand in a field somewhere. If you are a true fan, you will be able to accept that your team is terrible. The only way to right the ship is to do the same thing that every team in the NHL has done. Suck for four years and eventually enjoy the fruits of your patience.
Any powerhouse in the league right now was terrible at least once in the last 10 years. Teams such as the New Jersey Devils, Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators all went through terrible times. But through smart front office moves and patience these teams have risen to the top as they make up six of the top 10 teams in the entire league now.
I understand New York is demanding of its professional teams and athletes, but it’s time to stop this ballyhoo. The Rangers need help and although they took a step in the right direction on Tuesday and Wednesday by trading Brian Leetch to Toronto and Petr Nedved to the Oilers but there is still a lot of work to be done. The waiting has just begun.