Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Hit the Bricks..Thanks for Nothing Coach Renney

Or so Glenn "Savior" Sather, General Manager of the New York Rangers must have uttered as he shuttled the Rangers most successful coach in forever out the door. Unfortunately, Mr. Sather is calling the shots on this team. If he really wanted to help this team out, he would have fired himself for gross incompetence. He is making the banking executives seem like geniuses and Ranger Season Ticketholders wish they had invested with Bernie Madoff instead of the Garden Boxoffice. I know that the less informed will say the coach had to go and I understand the frustration with the Renney Line Boggle he played almost nightly. But really people, what is the poor guy supposed to do? He has to play a game of attrition with the other team because we don't have a single player on ice who scares the opponent from an offensive standpoint. He has been forced to coach his team that a tie is as good as win, because of our goalie Henrik Lundquist. How would you like to be saddled with the likes of Wade Redden on the point? Does anybody remember Marek Malik on the point, it looks awfully familiar doesn't it? Tap the puck past Redden and suddenly you have a two on one going the other way on our powerplay. How do you blame the coach for being forced to play an immovable object at point? Let's talk about our leaders on the ice. Gomez for all intents and purposes was Sather's way of trying to stick it to Lou Lamoriello and guess who's having the last laugh right now on that one. All you had to do was look at Gomez's stats for the time that he's been in the league to know he couldn't hold Jaromir Jagr's jockstrap. His best year amounted to what would be Jagr's worst year. Drury is more of a mystery as to why he isn't scoring. Yet, one has to wonder if a lot his goals didn't depend on the the offensive threats of other better skilled players. Whether its the pressure of being Captain or the lack of a bona fide skill player to work with, Drury hasn't been much of a presence on ice. So who's to blame for that? The only real gripe anybody could make about Renney was the lack of emotion behind the bench and the dreadful powerplay. I will also assume that the lack of playing time for Petr Prucha was a Renney decision that baffled me when you have team that can't score goals. Since the lockout season when the Rangers finally returned to the playoffs after an 8 year drought exactly two Rangers remain from that team. Each year Sather has thought to bring in the crown jewels from other winning clubs without any thought as to how they might fit in with the current team. Who doesn't remember that great defensive player Aaron Ward? How about the spark for our powerplay Matt Cullen? Anybody here want to see Adam Hall again? Anybody wish that Petr Sykora were back on the ice for the Blueshirts? Please can we see Sean Avery again? Every year its the same thing. Out with the good in with new and shiny pennies. However, Sather decided he needed to push the envelope just a bit further by creating contracts that no other team would want to take in a trade? Who is going to take our albatrosses of Gomez, Drury and Redden? I'll give you a hint, no one. Will Tortorella make a difference here, probably. Can this team make the playoffs? Probably can squeak in. Will they get anywhere in the playoffs? Highly doubtful. There is a reason that Glen Sather didn't go behind the bench this time, its because he's not a stupid as Isiah Thomas. Now he has a few years to blame Tortorella for the failures of yet another revamped team.

4 comments:

  1. Every year it is out with the old in with the new. Teams need time to develop chemistry. You can't constantly keep rotating MVP to MVP to MVP of OTHER teams and expect this team to win. NY isn't every other team and we need someone with some actual knowledge running this team. As long as Sather is around Renney is just another victim in the long string that will continue to follow.

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  2. Jody, I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, Mr. Dolan has an unhealthy attachment to Mr. Sather. Dolan like Sather like to collect trophy players, and unfortunately that never leads them to win the real trophy! Talk to you soon. Stuart.

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  3. Well of course they are never going to get rid of Sather it isn't even an option. This downward spiral will only continue.

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  4. Jody, I couldn't agree with you more. They don't seem to get that if your team wins in NY, you don't need friggin superstars to sell tickets and merchandise.

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