It’s a team effort… they all win or lose.

Including the coach.

Renney’s a decent coach. I don’t think he’s the next Bowman, I don’t think he’s horrible either. And he’s (I believe) the 5th winningest coach in Rangers HISTORY. 3 years to match almost 80 years of history.

We’ve had 1 Cup in most of the posters’ lifetimes (apologizies to those of us in their late-60s and past). I think I can speak for all (hopefully) of us when I say that we’re Ranger’s fans because we’re FIERCELY loyal, and maybe a touch too stupid to jump ship.

That being said, I’m one of the “optimists” on the board. When I look into the history of the team, its SAD. And if I see them leading the Conference, deserving it or no, I want to be happy. I deserve that. We ALL do.

We won’t ever be perfect or dominate the league with a dynasty, so enjoy what we got, knowing that it could VERY easily be SOOOO much worse.

That’s my spouting off for the day. :-)

We all know it’s about winning the cup but if that was the only reason for being a fan, the Rangers would have less fans than the Icelanders. I barely remember the 72 finals. I was 13 during the 79 finals and of course we have 1994. So 3 finals appearances and 1 championship in my 42 years, not really great odds but I’m there rooting this team on and I know they’re going to tease me and break my heart but I come back for more. So relax, if we only get to the 2nd round I’ll be there yelling and cheering until they stick the knife in my heart and after a couple of days I’ll be looking forward to the draft and get excited about who is the next group to tease and kill me again.

This place has turned into the Mike and the Maddog show (except about hockey). It seems like a matter of pessimism vs. optimism.

While you may take those points first and then look to the problems, a lot of these guys will see all the problems and then remember the points as an afterthought.

I understand the criticism of Renney…and i understand that it comes at all times. my issue is with the amount of blame put on him and the fact that he gets no slack whatsoever, even though this team has been a strong finisher for the past two years. In losses, it’s all Renney’s fault, and even when they win, he still effed something up. Something in there doesn’t completely match up. The same things they eff up in losses that you blame on Renney, if they do them right in the wins (or even the losses), you have to give them man some credit.

It’s been said all along that the plan is to use the season as a preparation (a springboard) for the playoffs. The flashy record will probably even out somewhere along the line, but you make the show and put that preparation to work.

Big picture, this franchise is headed in the right direction. I think the majority of those that don’t trust Renney, don’t see it. Typical of ny sports fans. They look for instant gratification. Perfection. They want to be the best damn armchair coach they can, and they know when players should be out on the ice. They can tell this from their living rooms. They can read it in the paper. They can see it on tv.

But they have never seen it first-hand, and in spite of the fact that they have NO first-hand knowledge, they just ‘know’. Gimme a f’n break. You can always tell when someone doesn’t really ‘get it’, when the first words of a discussion on the Rangers is “we need a new coach”. No…we’ve needed this coach for a while.

I have faith in the franchise. Faith in the staff. A little less with the on-ice personnel, but they’re still a good team. And this roster is not the roster you’ll see game 1 of the ‘08-’09 playoffs.

Maybe I’m just not that critical a person that I need to pick everything apart until there’s nothing left but dissapointment. I’d rather say, “we took points in 5 of our last 7”, than say “this is wrong, that’s wrong”.

Sorry for a long post, my only one of the a.m.

I dunno, man. I have been called a bunch of names—- stupid, ignorant, and worse—- by posters like Beer Me and Staal Wart and others—- simply for calling it as I see it: A team I have loved for thirty-two years whose current edition plays without structure or effort far too often. A general approach that says the coach is not effective either to diagnose or fix what ails.”

FIND THE POST. Never happened. To be honest..I’ve grown out of that in the 2yrs I’ve been posting here. so you find the post, and then we’ll talk. Until then….you’re still wrong.

Why are Dubi and Z benched to “Get them going” when guys like Drury and Rozsival get more playing time so they can “get out of their funks”. Of course Drury has gotten out of it, but I can’t say the same for #3. We’ve heard how “Different players need to be handled differently” but it’s not different players, it’s different age brackets if you follow Renney’s history. 3 and Z seem to both be guys who are “Fragile” but they are handled totally differently, the only difference is that Z leads the team in points DESPITE averaging probably 14-15 minutes per game.

Z will be on his way to Detroit at the end of this year, where he and Datsyuk will light up the league, while Renney and his joke system continue to make the playoffs and get knocked out. Yay! One of the top 16 teams! Hoorayyy! We’re a better than average team! Let’s celebrate!!!