Rangers Report Blog

So, since you guys have been doing it for months, if not years, let’s talk about Tom Renney.

FIRST I’d like to get an idea of what I’m up against here. Do you think it would be possible for you guys to SIMPLY give me a YES or NO response – no arguments, no trash talk, just a YES or a NO on the following?:

Do you think this is all Renney’s fault?

If you say YES, then I trust you are saying you think the team is better than its record indicates and he should be fired.

If you say NO, then I will take that as any number of things, such as it’s partly his fault, or it’s not his fault, or his hand are tied by the players he has, or he could do better but he’s not bad, etc.

Once I count up the YES and NO votes tomorrow morning, we’ll try to have a discussion on the coach, the GM, the players, etc., but focusing on Renney.

So PLEASE starting now, just YES or NO.

YES OR NO.

OK?

Here’s the recap stat sheet from NHL.com.

I know nobody wants to hear this, but that wasn’t a bad road game against the best team in the East. And it was typical of the Rangers’ pop-gun offense to get blanked by a minor-league nobody, right?

Try to win 2-1, and forget to get the 2. Or unable to get the 2.

I’ve got some writing to do, so I’ll check back later, or tomorrow morning.

I never liked afternoon NHL games. To me, it often seems, players aren’t totally awake and ready for the battle of an NHL game. These are creatures of habit, and they can’t force themselves to bed early, and their bodies are generally used to rising early for a morning skate, a meal and a nap before playing in the evening. Now they lose the morning skate and the nap and the afternoon preparation.

I’m not making excuses. I just think the daytime games sometimes lack the fire and enthusiasm.

I also get a kick out of every post-afternoon-game interview. The player or coach will invariably say “tonight” when discussing the game.
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Adam Graves will have his number retired Tuesday, but do you remember that he already has had one of his Rangers numbers retired?

It was right in Boston—in the little rat-and-roach-infested Boston Garden where you could never see a bad game, before they tore it down to begin playing in their new corporate-named Garden 18 inches away—on the opening night of 1991-92. The Rangers had traded their captain, Kelly Kisio, so Graves, who had signed as a free agent from Edmonton late in the summer, wore Kisio’s No. 11 that night in Boston. Bernie Nicholls wore No. 9.

During that game, back in New York, Mark Messier passed a Rangers physical, and the next morning the trade was consummated, bringing Messier here to wear No. 11 and Kisio’s old “C.” Nicholls was in the deal, so Graves got No. 9 for the next game in Montreal.
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Are you missing Sam Weinman? I am. He did this interview with NYRangerscast yesterday and you can hear it here: He did this interview with NYRangerscast yesterday, and you can hear it here.

We hope to do a live Rangers Report video chat Wednesday at 1 p.m. I’ll keep you “posted” on that. Hope you can all drop by.
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One of our readers asked why the Knicks can pay Stephon Marbury $23 million to sit and watch and not play, but won’t pay Wade Redden his $5M or so to go play in Hartford. The obvious answer is that Marbury was somebody else’s mistake, not Donnie Walsh’s. But while there is much deserved dislike for Redden already, and he’s probably never ever going to be worth anywhere near that amount of money, he is an NHL defenseman, better than anything they have in Hartford, and the Rangers have to hope he finds his game somehow, and soon.

Meanwhile, another reader suggested I pin to Redden’s locker this quote from all-out, every-play Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu about earning his gigantic contract (four years, $30 million). I can’t tack it to Redden’s locker, so I’ll post it here:

“You have to earn the money,” Polamalu said. “It’s not for what I did in the past, it’s for what I’ve got to earn now.”

Enjoy the game.

OK, I don’t remember the actual question yesterday, but somebody asked me about my relationship with Muckler … and also somebody accused me of being a bit too cozy with Rangers coaches.

So here’s my favorite Muckler story: After I left the beat in 2002, Muck had long been gone and some idiot actually hired him to be GM of the Ottawa Senators.

Anyway, Andrew Gross had taken my place as the Rangers beat writer, and he made his first trip to Ottawa, where he ran into Muck at the morning skate. Andrew thought it would be good to get to know all the hockey people he could, so he approached Muck.

AG: “Hi, I’m Andrew Gross of The Journal News. I replaced Rick Carpiniello on the Rangers beat.”

JM: “What, did he die?”

AG: “No, he got promoted.”

JM: “Oh, that’s too bad.”

With that the worst coach in recent Rangers history turned his back on Andrew and walked away.

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Everybody skated today, including Callahan and your favorite free-agent defenseman from Ottawa. And the new kid, Reitz. Doesn’t appear he’s going to play in Boston. But they like his toughness. I don’t know if he can skate or handle the puck well enough to be a regular. We’ll see.

AND ANOTHER THING: Congratulations to Doc Emrick, who will be honored by the Devils tonight after going into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Man, we’re awfully lucky around here to have two fabulous hockey play-by-play guys like Doc and the super pro Sam Rosen just six miles apart.

With all the transition going on here yesterday we didn’t get much chance to discuss the disaster at the Igloo the night before … not that it’s worth re-hashing, and obviously you all hashed it as it was happening.

But I keep going back to what happened at the opening faceoff. Godard and Colton Orr had prearranged, or as we used to say, “made reservations” to have a little dance. The puck hit the ice and off they went. Pretty good fight as hockey fights go. Some big bombs. Both landed at least one good one.

I’ve always enjoyed the tough side of hockey, always liked the tough guys, always thought the Lady Byng was an award you don’t want to win.

And I fully understand that this wasn’t one of those—well we’re out here together, we might as well fight—and it wasn’t a case of trying to make a statement. The two guys had history. Orr had roughed up Sidney Crosby a bit in the past, and then tried to goad Godard into a fight last time, and Goddard smartly declined as the Penguins were leading late.

I just want to get some of your feelings on these types of fights, though. The drop-of-the-puck fight, and the “just because we’re both on the ice at the same time” fight. Aren’t they pretty useless.

I love it when a guy like Crosby is tough enough to stick up for himself, or Jarome Iginla, or Lecavalier. Or so many other guys who are players who don’t mind fighting, rather than fighters who sometimes play. I just think maybe the fight between designated goons, which has nothing to do with the emotion and fire of the game, is past its time. Those guys—one per team, who usually don’t get a sniff of a shift during the playoffs—are involved in probably 95 percent of all fights. Do we really need this silly showcase anymore?

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Rangers didn’t need a Colton Orr taking up cap and roster and lineup space?

Just asking.

Now, on to the Super Bowl, that long-awaited, dragged-out, two-week TV show and corporate schmooze. Sam Borden and I will make our picks today, and if anybody wants to join us, or to comment on that game, visit us at Faceoff.

So many questions so quickly. Wow! Great job, gang.

I am still doing my columns at The Journal News and at LoHud.com in addition to this blog and Faceoff with Sam Borden. So I’m busy, and we’re still figuring out the logistics of filling in for Sam …

Long story short, I have to go to an event now to write a column, so I will answer a few questions quickly then run, and I’ll stop back here later tonight: 

Thanks for the welcome. I don’t think Mr. Glen ever liked me because, from Day 1 (June 1, 2000) I said he was a bad hire, and because I have always pointed out how Dolan just loves the guy and gave him a job for life … that said, I think Slats has done a much better job the last few years.

Renney? I think most of you know where I stand on him. But we’ll get into that again in the coming days. Let’s just say that after Muckler-Low-Trottier-Sather, he looks pretty good. Still. Remind me to tell you my favorite Muckler story (or stories) later.

I think the new guy (not me, this kid from Minnesota) will probably go to the minors first, but I could be wrong.

I am a Prucha fan. I know he is lacking in some areas, but geez, when you need goals … you can’t teach those.

And, no, I don’t think Renney calls the personnel shots, although I am certain he has input.

Mr. Dellapina, good to hear from you, too. Sorry I wasn’t in Montreal with you guys. See you Tuesday at MSG, right?

The past is present. Or … you can go home again.

First I want to say a big “Hello!” to all the Blueshirts diehards, and I also want to tell you all that I will miss Sam as much as you guys do. Maybe more. He is (and always will be) a great friend and a great writer, and a person who did his job with the greatest of enthusiasm and skill (plus the prettiest practice swing in golf).

I can’t replace him.

But … this blog is one of the greatest places in sports. It has become sort of like the Garden itself, because while its players retire or are traded away, the place remains the same and it is the fans who make it so and make it go. A blog is only as good as its readers – or participants might be a better word. Sam made it great, no doubt. But you all made it better, and we certainly hope you will stay, just as you stay glued to your TVs or your MSG seats whether you’re watching Gilbert or Davidson or Pavelich or Patrick or Leetch or Messier or Lindros or Jagr or Lundqvist.

Because we know your passion, and that never changes, no matter who fills the blue shirts.

Some of you probably know me. I covered the Rangers for The Journal News to various degrees from the 1978-79 team that made an improbable run to the Stanley Cup finals (and should have won), through the only Rangers team in the last 68+ years to win the Cup, through all the mayhem of the non-playoff disaster, until the middle of the forgettable Bryan Trottier era. I have written a couple of books on the Rangers, and used to be a regular in The Hockey News and many other publications, as well as on MSG Network.

My all-time favorites are the same as your favorites – Graves, Leetch, Richter, Messier, going back to Davidson and the Maloney brothers and forward to King Henrik.

I covered the Rangers home and away, through sickness and in health, through the good, the bad and the awful.

But those were the days in which, if somebody said, “blog” you’d think they’d eaten some bad clams (or MSG hot dogs). I never had the chance to blog about “my” team when it was mine.

So the people here have entrusted me to be part of the team that tries to fill Sam’s skates (or his golf shoes). All I ask is that you stay with us, and here’s why. It is the banter among you that make this blog what it is. It is the sheer numbers of you guys and ladies who watch the game with your keyboards within reach, and who let the opinions and observations fly. Who live and die with every penalty call, every bad line change, every goal, every W-L-OT.

We’re going to continue to give you that forum. None of us personally will be able to be as involved as Sam was, but we will try to keep you informed, and to hear you. If there is ever anything in particular you want to discuss, just let us know.

An aside to Sam’s last post: Exactly like Sam, my first assignment for the newspaper was a football game in Northern Westchester, and the next day my girlfriend (who would become my wife) and I drove up there in a pouring rain to buy a stack of northern editions of the paper. Only this was quite a few years before Sam’s first story.

Fortunately for me, the Rangers subject I know best is the subject coming up in the next few days: No. 9, the most popular, beloved Ranger ever. So hopefully we’ll have time to tell some Adam Graves stories and to help celebrate the retirement of his number from this weekend through Tuesday’s ceremony.

So keep checking in, and keep your comments coming. Again, if there is ever anything you want to bring up, just let us know. Thanks.

—Carp

Update, 2:09 p.m.: The Rangers “have traded Dan Fritsche to Minnesota for defenseman Eric Reitz”:http://wild.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=406780. Reitz, 26 (7/29/82), had two points (1-1=2) and 41 penalty minutes in 31 games with the Wild this season, and totaled two points (1-1=2) and 45 penalty minutes in 37 career games with Minnesota.

The other night after the game against the Hurricanes, a bunch of us headed out for a few drinks, and a friendly face approached as I headed out the door.

“Love the blog,” he said. “Keep up the good work.”

“I will,” I said.

OK, so maybe that wasn’t completely true. Because what I didn’t say then is those drinks were not just to commemorate the end of another mid-season hockey game, but to cap off my last game covering the Rangers.

When you consider all the ground we cover on this blog, I fully accept the news of me leaving the beat is relatively insignificant. And yet given the remarkable support this little sliver of cyberspace has received since its debut, the readers here at least deserve an explanation why I’m no longer going to be a part of it.

After 12 years at The Journal News — the last three of which were spent writing for the most devoted fans in sports — I am leaving to pursue a career in another sport I love, as a senior editor at “GolfDigest.com”:http://www.golfdigest.com/. The timing of the move isn’t great, and I admit it comes with a tinge of sadness. But it’s also an opportunity I’m fortunate to have, and a new phase of my life I’m eager to enter.

The good news, though, is this blog isn’t going anywhere. And appropriately enough, it will be Rick Carpiniello, the guy whose NHL column I devoured as a hockey fan and who went on to become one of my best friends in journalism, who will be returning to help steer this blog. If anything, it turns out I was just keeping Carpie’s seat warm for him.

As for me, this isn’t just any job I’m leaving, since it’s actually the only real job I’ve ever had. My first story for the paper that is now The Journal News was about a high school football game the fall after I graduated from college. Back then there was no internet version of the paper — actually, I didn’t even have a computer —  and the story I wrote was only buried inside the sports section of the paper’s northern edition. But it was still ample reason for my girlfriend and I to hop in my Nissan Sentra and drive 30 minutes to a coffee shop in northern Westchester, where I bought a stack of papers that all magically had my byline in it.

That girlfriend is now my wife and the mother of my two boys, and I’ve since been fortunate enough to write hundreds, maybe even thousands of stories about everything from the Masters and British Open to the National Hockey League

(As a fitting aside, my first Rangers assignment was the day before John Muckler took over as the team’s coach after the 1998 Olympic break. I was the only reporter at Rye Playland that day, and I clearly didn’t know what I was doing. Enter Adam Graves, who noticed the clueless look on my face, told me to follow him into the locker room, and then proceeded to give me everything I needed for my story. I wish I could cover his jersey retirement ceremony next week, if only to thank him for that characteristic display of grace).

When I took over the Rangers beat in the fall of 2006, I was skeptical that there would be much of an appetite for my occasionally offbeat musings about hockey. Millions of hits and tens of thousands of comments later, this blog has been one of the most intensive but gratifying ventures of my career.

I will miss it for all the reasons you’d expect: the beauty and drama of the  games, the spirited give-and-take with readers, the daily window into the most impressive but most humble athletes on earth. And I’ll miss it for reasons you probably wouldn’t think of, like the mornings after games, when I’d sit down at the breakfast table and tell my 3 1/2 year old son Charlie about everything I witnessed the night before.

When I told Charlie I was no longer going to cover the Rangers, his first reaction was tears. He has a Rangers calendar on his wall, and a Jaromir Jagr stick leaning against his garage, and he’s been fortunate enough to tag along with his old man to the occasional practice (even scarier, some of his favorite nighttime reading is from the stack of NHL media guides I have in my home office. Honestly, it was his idea). At that point, he figured his intimate connection to hockey was disappearing.  But I didn’t see it that way

“Charlie,” I said. “This means you and I can start going to games together.”

Amidst all the inviting prospects that come with a new career, that’s one I’ve enjoyed thinking about. I haven’t been to an NHL game as a fan since Wayne Gretzky still had a Rangers jersey tucked into the side of his pants. And yet the next time you see me at the Garden, I’ll probaby have at least one little boy at my side and the beverage of my choice in my hands (my writing might suggest otherwise, but that’s actually off-limits when you’re on the job).

I’ve made no secret of my affection for the game as both a player and a spectator. Hockey has been in my blood since I first wore a pair of skates at age 3 and began twirling around the small pond in our backyard, and that’s not going to change even as professionally my focus shifts back from ice to grass. I will continue to play, continue to watch, and continue to be a fan of the fine work of the other people who cover this game, many of whom have become good friends.

Maybe I won’t be here to chime in on a regular basis. But I’ll always be able to savor the time that I did. And for that, I owe all of you a debt of thanks.

By our calculations, the feel-good vibe around the Rangers lasted roughly 23 hours, covering the time between their fifth win in their last six games, and the start of their third-period face plant last night in Pittsburgh.

Players made the case of saying that other than a five-goal third period, they played a good game, which is kind of like saying other than how they taste and smell, I really like bratwursts.

More later…

There are two choices on snowy days like today: You can either spend hours at the airport in the small hope of actually getting off the ground and making it to  Pittsburgh.

Or you can decide long ago—or better yet, have it decided for you—that you were never going in the first place, and instead enjoy the game from the comfort of your home.

This is not to disparage “the likes of Zipay,”:http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/hockey/rangers/blog/, who will at least get a chance to enjoy an overpriced sandwich or three from Bon Au Pain and listen to his beloved tunes while waiting for his flight. I’m just saying this is not one of those days when I feel like I’m missing out on all the fun.

But I digress. More important is that for all their shortcomings, the Rangers have quietly rattled off five of six, and allowed just eight goals along the way. It might not be hockey that inspires. But as I’ve said before, it’s hard to poke holes in it when it seems to work.

Tonight is another test, however. The Rangers will have Henrik Lundqvist back in net, and the Penguins look like “they’ll have Sidney Crosby back from a knee injury”:http://nationalpost.pa-sportsticker.com/default.aspx?s=nhl-news-display&nid=A2006261233093203A. Given that the Rangers’ lone dud in this recent run was a 3-0 loss to the Penguins on Jan. 18, I suspect the team will scrap together a better effort tonight.

But we won’t know for sure until later…

Update, 3:10 p.m.: Dan Fritsche cleared waivers and is still with the team.

Update, 7:15 p.m.: So Zipay “made it to Pittsburgh”:http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/hockey/rangers/blog/2009/01/prucha_on_first_line_callahan.html, as did the entire traveling party. I stand corrected. The news of the night is that Petr Prucha is in for Ryan Callahan, who will miss the first game of the season with the flu.