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?

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.

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).