Adam Graves Number Going To The Rafters, But Wait, There's More!

We all learned that Adam Graves was getting his number 9 retired this season back during Brian Leetch's number retirement ceremony.... but what we (or at least I) didn't realize, was that the Rangers weren't stopping there.

No, just a couple weeks after Gravy's number is raised to the rafters on Feb 3, 2009, two more guys will be so honored by the Rangers on Feb 22, 2009: Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell.

Interestingly, Bathgate also wore number 9 so the Rangers will be like the Knicks, who have two number 15s retired (Earl Monroe and Dick McGuire) and the Yankees, who have two number 8s retired (Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra).

What's also interesting to me is that the Rangers waited this long to honor outstanding players like Bathgate and Howell.

Perhaps Bathgate having worn number 9 was an issue -- deciding to retire it for Graves opens up a (legit) discussion that might ask, why wasn't this done for Bathgate? He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978 and Howell, a defenseman was inducted in 1979.

Maybe because these guys didn't win Cups for this team, they never thought to honor them. For the longest time, it was just Eddie Giocoman's number 1 and Rod Gilbert's number 7 up there... and now it's growing rapidly. I used to think the only ones left would be the ones we all expected -- Mess, Graves, Leetch and Richter, the cornerstones of the '94 team. But now that we've opened the gates up, why not some others from the solid '60s teams?

Gilles Villemure's number 30? Steve Vickers' number 8? Jean Ratelle's number 19?

And hey, Brad Park wore number 2... Nicky Fotiu wore 22.... Bob Froese wore number 33!

We could fill those rafters in no time.

Mats Sundin Kind of IS a Land Mine

So Mats Sundin, late of the Toronto Maple Leafs, might or might not want to become Mats Sundin of the New York Rangers. In true Brett Favre style... according to Sundin's agent:

"He still hasn't decided if he is going to play this year. That's stage one. Stage two will be picking a team. We haven't had that discussion yet."

I see. So first he'll decide if he'll grace the NHL with his stellar 10-place-in-the-Eastern-Conference kind of leadership, and then after that, he'll regale us with teams he deems worthy of his deteriorating services.

I can hardly wait, Mats.

What's Happening With Brendan Shanahan?

"Where the hell will I be playing this year? Your guess is as good as mine."

Hell if I know.

Some reports suggest Shanny might wind up back in St. Louis, because the Blues have the cap room.

Yet his agent insists being a Ranger is still Brendan's priority. I like hearing that and I'd really like having the savvy veteran back for another year, but the Rangers are close to the cap (ugh, hate discussing the cap -- we need games already) and so unless he's willing to play on the cheap, I don't see it happening.

I hope it does because I still like my Shanny-Shirt t-shirt jersey.

All-Time New York Rangers Roster, As Voted By Fans

The fans have spoken, according to NewYorkRangers.com, and they voted on the all-time best Rangers team, player-by-player through the years. There were no surprises, honestly, with representation from the solid '60s teams as well as from the '90s nostalgia years. The team is as follows:

Forwards: Mark Messier, Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle
Defensemen: Brad Park, Brian Leetch
Goalies: Ed Giocamin, Mike Richter

Any time Mike Richter is your backup, you've got a damn good team. Though I have to say, this sounds more like a power play unit. Not to questions Messers Park and Leetch on their defensive skills, but how would they decide who gets to pinch?

Wearing the As and C This Year

The conventional wisdom right now is that Chris Drury will likely be named captain of the Rangers during the preseason. I’d be fine with that, as Drury has always been a leader and a winner. He’s a class guy and would do a fine job. However, I don’t think he’s necessarily the only legit choice.

A guy I wasn’t impressed with when he signed – and I've heard people say nobody is really impressed with him unless he plays for your team – was Scott Gomez. But seeing Gomez’ leadership and enthusiasm and connection with the other guys makes me think he’s a terrific choice for captain as well. At the very least he should be wearing an Alternate “A.”

As for the other “A,” with Marty Straka gone and Brendan Shanahan in limbo, I feel a solid choice for it would be defenseman Michael Rozsival. Rozsival has been a consistent, talented backliner for the past couple of years and it’s been so much fun seeing him grow up before our eyes, getting high-pressure minutes in the ‘05’-’06 campaign and never giving any reason why he shouldn’t continue getting those minutes.

Markus Naslund will likely be in the running for an “A” as well and that’s more than fair. While the guy is new to the Rangers, he’s been a captain before and has been well-respected in that role.

These are critical decisions that I know Tom Renney takes seriously. For the entirety of the ’05-’06 season he went with three “A” designations and no “C,” which I remember thinking was simply brilliant. The last captain had been Messier, which nobody on that team was qualified to follow. And with no expectations and very young team, it made sense to see who would step up. And as the wonderful results were yielding a 100-point season, Renney saw no reason to mess with it. It wasn’t until the playoff loss to the Devils that it became apparent that the Rangers needed an officially designated leader. And by then one had emerged in Jagr.

This season brings about some uncertainty as well and while I’d love to try to recapture the magic by using the three-A system again, I think there’s too much leadership already established to try that again and doing so would just seem like a gimmick.

Let’s give it to Drury and let him lead.

Rangers Merchandise on the Cheap

Because I care about you, the loyal reader (as though I have any yet), I am pointing out that the Rangers are holding their "Blow Out Summer Merchandise Sale" this week at the Garden. Evidently, there will be up to 90% markdowns on Rangers apparel.

Dates and times are as follows:

Wednesday, August 20 from 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Thursday, August 21 from 10:00am to 3:00pm
Friday, August 22 from 10:00am to 6:00pm

Hmm, the "Blow Out" sale, huh? I suppose they could have called it the "What We Do To The New Jersey Devils Merchandise Sale," but why start throwing jabs before the season even begins? Lord knows no Devils "fans" are paying attention yet.

Jaromir Jagr -- Should We Miss Him?

The Jags situation was a difficult one, wasn’t it? Here we had a guy who had blossomed as a leader in New York and who had actually seemed to enjoy being a senior spokesman on a youthful team. He enjoyed taking guys under his wing and being the one to talk the boys up to the media. Of course, his monster ’05-’06 season was nice, too.

I was never a huge Jagr fan. When he came to New York, I couldn’t shake the images of him dogging it in Washington and practically admitting it during an on-ice All-Star Game interview. But he lit it up in New York, the fans loved him and even I eventually came around. The guy really seemed to want to win badly. Maybe he wanted to win the same way Kobe Bryant wants to win – without the guy who was always attached to him and his titles (Mario for Jags, Shaq for Kobe, in case you live under a rock). It sure looked that way because he seemed driven to me.

Sure, there were still the weird, occasional Jagr-isms, like asking out of the shootout Top 3 because he didn’t like breakaways and felt he wasn't good at it. But all in all, we all came around on Jags. He embraced being the captain and led the team admirably. Nobody wearing the C following Mark Messier had an easy job and I’m not sure anybody could have done it better. Brian Leetch, long a favorite of mine and all Ranger fans, certainly couldn’t handle it.

And now he’s gone. Jagr wanted to stay, but only half-heartedly it seemed. He wasn’t going to get a big, final NHL contract from the Rangers – largely due to the salary cap – and he knew it. He also knew, after one of his worst statistical seasons ever, that he wasn’t a hot ticket in the NHL at all anymore. And while I’m sure somebody would have paid him well enough, the lure of going back to Omsk proved too much. (I really can’t believe I just wrote about the lure of Avangard Omsk.)

It’s hard to fathom anyone wanting to live and work in Russia over New York City. But none of us are in Jagr’s head, where who knows what goes on. This is a foreign land for him and he’s taken a lot of arrows from the media and various fans here. In Omsk, where he played during the lockout, he was revered and treated like a conquering hero – which he probably deserves.

Jaromir Jagr won two Stanley Cups and gave his all during other playoff runs, especially with the Rangers. I'll always be convinced that his shoulder was never close to right again after he injured it taking a swipe at Gomez in the 2006 playoffs. And yet he never complained about it and pushed through, doing his best. My respect has grown for him during his time in Ranger blue and I have to say I’ll miss him and I think the team will miss him.

Why You Shouldn't Miss Sean Avery

As per usual, the Rangers faithful at the Garden latched on to a guy who was a bit of, well… a prick. Sean Avery came to the Rangers and everything he touched turned to gold for a while. When he arrived near the trade deadline in 2007, the Rangers were floundering and were a ways out of the playoffs. They were in one of those, “Hey, if we just play .650 hockey from here on out…” situations… only they actually then did just that and secured the 6-seed. Avery’s arrival coincided with that and his energetic, bombastic style of play seemed to wake the Rangers up.

Whether it did or not is, of course, immaterial. The fans loved him and he ate it up. Sometimes he crossed the line but for the most part he was good for the Rangers that year.

Then the ’07 offseason happened and Sean Avery began to become a pain in the ass, forcing arbitration and acting like he was a schoolgirl with hurt feelings when the Rangers tried to get him at a better rate than he wanted.

And then the ’07-’08 season happened, and Avery continued to be a royal pain in the ass, especially getting under the skin of Marty Brodeur. Now, I’m all for messing with Marty and if you can get in his head and get him off his game, you’re doing something right. But Avery seemed to be pushing things almost too far… to the point where he was risking Henrik getting run by some goon from the opposition. Now that’s not good. Pissing off Marty is one thing – running into him repeatedly is another.

And then the playoffs…where Avery’s antics actually caused the league to change the unsportsmanlike conduct rules in the middle of a playoff series. Sure, there are those who sided with the league (most people think Avery’s an a-hole) but let’s make no mistake here – the league was out of line on that one. Colin Campbell decided he didn’t like Sean Avery and he did like Marty Brodeur and so he changed the rules. Absolutely ridiculous. And then even more ridiculous was when one of the Pens players did the same stick-in-the-face-but-I’m-not-touching-you routine during the second-round series and it wasn’t called. But I digress.

The point is, Avery was becoming a distraction to the Rangers. He wasn’t a locker room problem just yet, but you could see it coming. It was only a matter of time before the whole Eastern Conference decided it was tired of his act and stopped letting it bother them. I’m frankly amazed it worked as well as it did for as long as it did… but again, that wasn’t going to last forever.

Now he’s off to Dallas to antagonize the West again. Sure, it’ll work for a while. But will the Rangers miss him? Was his 15-20 goals and occasional penalty-drawing worth the fact that he also took a lot of frustrating penalties (i.e., diving) and might have been a few months away from becoming a locker room cancer that was simply untradeable? I don’t think so.

I think it’s good riddance, Sean. You were good for a while and served a useful purpose. However, the act was wearing thin quickly and I’m fine with the Rangers not having the NHL’s number 1 villain.

NHL Scheduling Office, You're Awesome As Always

The NHL has released their preseason schedule and, because I'm a biased fool, I only care about the Rangers. And I have to say, what the H, man? Do they really need to make Silver Elite status before the season even starts? We already know they're beginning the season in Europe (yeah, that's fair) but did you know where else they're going and that they basically have a normal U.S. preseason, too, plus several high-intensity matchups in Europe before their official start?

Let's take a look...

Sat, 9/20 -- The Rangers open the preseason in Ottawa. Sure, why not?

Mon, 9/22 -- Ottawa comes to New York.

Weds, 9/24 -- NYR @ NJD. Plenty of good seats still available, as always.

Thurs, 9/25 -- Tampa @ NYR.

Sat, 9/27 -- NJD @ NYR. I'm already sick of the Devils.

Tues, 9/30 -- NYR @ SC Bern in Bern, Switzerland. Come on. Three days after their last game? Couldn't they have given them a week of rest? Time to travel? Time to settle in? I hope Renney sits every significant player and I don't care of Bern wins 12-0.

Weds, 10/1 -- NYR vs. Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Bern, Switzerland. Mertallurg? Isn't that a major at most engineering schools?

Fortunately, that's it for the preseason schedule, but do they really need to be going to Ottawa? Do they need to play many stateside games at all? I know, I know, it's all about the money and without the Rangers, how could the Devils even put 3,000 fans in their arena for a preseason game when they can't sell out for playoff games? (Yes, get used to it -- I'll be hating on the Devils a LOT here).

Whatever, I'm just looking for things to carp about at this point. I'm sure the NHL looked at the Czech-heavy Rangers and thought they'd be perfect for this experiment -- and then Straka and Jagr departed and it hurts a bit. But they're still the NHL's New York franchise and Henrik Lundqvist alone should be a big draw (and yes, I know he's Swedish and not Swiss -- remind me to tell you a story about that, though, sometime).

Petr Nedved Just Won't Go Away

It's really kind of hard to believe how long Petr Nedved's been kicking around and how many times he seems to funnel back to the Rangers. He's never been particularly good with New York, so it's weird to me that he wants to come back specifically because he likes New York City and the Blueshirts.

It's hard to believe ol' number 93 was originally shipped to the Rangers as part of compensation from the Blues mandated by the league after Mike Keenan was snaked out from under the team so the Blues could hire him to destroy their franchise.

Nedved alternated being a really gifted scorer while on other teams with being a disappointing underachiever with the Rangers. Ranger fans always loved him for that.

Petr did have some decent years for the Rangers, including a 32-46-78 year in 2000-2001, but the Rangers sucked so bad in his second stint that it's largely forgotten.

Nedved specifically asked for a tryout opportunity in camp and what I think is the most amusing part of that article linked above is that he doesn't have interest in a "fourth-liner role" and yet, he is quoted thusly:

"I have to be realistic and I don't see a big chance," Nedved told Czech reporters Tuesday. "It's probably a closed chapter for me....But you never say 'never.'"

Hmmm, maybe something's been lost in the translation. Because that sounds like a 37-year-old dude who realizes the Rangers aren't likely to cut or demote Gomez, Drury or Dubinsky, so fourth-line center is pretty much all that's left. Or maybe ol' Petr has visions of streaking down the ice and scoring.

Or maybe that's what I think of doing to his hot wife.

Islanders Continue Hiring Mediocre Goalies For Management Positions

The Islanders hired Scott Gordon to be their coach on Tuesday.

Who? Exactly.

Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair. Gordon was the Coach of the Year last season.

In the AHL.

But still, he was Coach of the Year!

What makes this curious to me is that there are loads of proven, qualified, energetic coaches out there right now, like Paul Maurice, John Tortorella, etc.

Ah, wait, I think I've figured it out... Gordon was a mediocre goalie who had a 2-16 career record with a 5.60 GAA for the Nordiques back in the late '80s. And Garth Snow was at the same training camp.

Look for Ron Hextall as Head of Nassau Colesium Security, Mike Liut as Head Concession Stand Manager and Bob Froese as team chaplain.

Well, Looky What We Have Here

Well, what do we have here? Why, it’s a New York Rangers blog, joining the blogging fray. It will be dedicated to the New York Rangers and their pursuit of that elusive Stanley Cup.

Well, no, wait, it won’t be dedicated to them… that’s kind of weird. It will actually just cover some of the things they do and how the team, the players, the fans, the management, the broadcasters and the opponents act, talk, perform and think. We’ll talk fawningly about the team on an intermittent basis while also talking in negative, snarky tones about the team. It’ll be a site where you’ll want to come to see what’s being said about the Rangers by people who know what they’re talking about.

Who am I? Glad you (didn’t actually) ask. I am a guy who grew up in the NYC suburbs out in NJ and has been to more Rangers games than I care to count. I began going in the very early 1980s and had season tickets with my dad starting in 1983. We kept those for a dozen years, culminating with the ’94 season and the Stanley Cup memories. Then I went off to college (where my love of Purdue was cultivated) and we only went to games we scored off of business contacts or friends. Then after college, well, the Rangers sucked. They went through that listless period of non-playoff appearances, yet we were there, taking it all in and reminiscing about how, except for a few brief seasons, we had seen a lot of lousy hockey.

And then, suddenly, after the lockout, our boys were good again. They were worth cheering for. They made you proud to be a Rangers fan. It didn’t matter that they weren’t going to win the Cup – they were hard-working, hustling and driven, and that’s all anybody in New York wanted. People always thought New York fans were all like Yankee fans – demanding nothing less than a champion and only wanting mega-stars. The Rangers fans proved this wasn’t true by supporting that ’05-’06 team as much or more than any I’d seen in my 20+ years of fandom. We simply wanted to have a team worth rooting for. And we had it.

I remember writing to Tom Renney after the Rangers ridiculous 15-round shootout win over the Caps in November of 2005. I was there for the game and it was the most excited that building had been since the ’97 playoffs. Without question. I thanked Renney simply for giving us that kind of a team that worked so hard and gave the fans their money’s worth. He wrote me an email thanking ME and referring to them as my Rangers and that “we will lift the Cup again.”

So I’m a passionate guy about this team and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. However, the upcoming ’08-’09 season will again have me giving up my season tickets due to location reasons. My job has taken me to Houston, TX for the time being and so I will be connected to my Rangers via the Center Ice package and video highlights. I still hate you, Versus, but we can continue our uneasy alliance of convenience.

So yeah, I’m not there anymore, but it’s all the more reason to write about them in this way. We can all stay connected and you can tell me all about them and relay your thoughts and feelings and opinions. Keep me posted. And I’ll post for keeps.