B R O A D W A Y***B L U E S H I R T S

1 ) I hope The Ranger coaching staff and the goaltending coach in particular have a long, serious sitdown with Henrik, utilizing all the video from these 2 series and especially the series with the Sabres.
He sholuld remain inside of the crease area and no further then 6 inches outside of it from here on out. No more going behind the net, no more trying to be like martin brodeur of 5 years ago , no more puck handling --other then stopping the shootarounds by the opponents for your Blueshirt teammates--- stay the fuck inside your crease area and stay put . You are absolutely phenomenal in the net- outisde the net- not so much .

2 ) Please make sure Shanny returns, or at the very least , let him know that The New York Rangers want him back in the mix-- if he should decide to play another season .

3 ) Same thing with Sean Avery - this guy might not have overwhelming statistics, but there is absolutely no question or doubt in my mind that this team was lacking something previous to his pickup, and since his arrival our record was pretty impressive. Like Jagr said, he's one of the most underrated players in the league, and he wasnt so much of a liability that he put us at any disadvantages. ( * yet )


4 ) Please , send Karel Rachunek far away from Rangerland and MSG . Start training and excercising the farmhands now so that when the camp opens in August , they will be vying for a roster spot on this team. Staal and Liffiton come to mind right off the top of my head and without checking the Wolfpack Roster, but surely one of these younger guys can match if not exceed the hot and cold play of Rachunek all year long, IMO . ( some may want to add malik to this list, as well )


I will add more as I recall them.



again , thanks for the great ride boys.


[size=+3] - _/ _/ _/ Lets Go Rangers \_ \_ \_ - [/size]

No Rangers, No Ratings


No Rangers, no ratings
May 8, 2007


As usual, the National Hockey League can't catch a break. I know that nobody will shed a tear over the New York Rangers getting eliminated on Sunday in six games by the Buffalo Sabres, but if you care about the sport ever getting more exposure for the brilliance that it is, you should.


Before we get into the business at hand, I'm not a Rangers fan. Never have been; never will be. I'm the polar opposite. However, the Rangers team of the past two years is not a typical mega-market conglomerate of talent and bloated payroll.

Sure, they have talent like Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, but they also have hard-working, under-appreciated talent like defenseman Michael Rozsival and feisty agitator Sean Avery.

They have no inherent financial advantage (thankfully) on anybody else -- at least in terms of payroll -- and they are better off for it. Glen Sather actually has shown that he can still be brilliant without flashing around his fancy credit card.

The Rangers are and have been a fun, likeable, mostly blue-collar unit that overachieved last season, underachieved for the first part of this season and then hit their stride and really should have beaten the Sabres to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Sadly, they did not.

Don't get me wrong. I love watching the Buffalo Sabres. I covered that franchise for a number of years, and there are not many more passionalte, loyal and supportive fan bases in sports right now than the fine folks of western New York.

That's the problem. It's western New York and not the New York that the NHL wanted, craves and really needs.

The NHL was dealt a psychological blow on Sunday afternoon because the Rangers and New York City could finally deliver the exposure, ratings and casual interest that every sport needs and every show or form of entertainment needs.

Ottawa and Buffalo will put on a fantastic conference finals and for the NHL's sake, here's hoping that the Sabres can advance because if Ottawa and say Anaheim are in the Cup Finals, you will have a complete ratings disaster.

To show what big markets can do for a sports league, all you have to see was what happened when the San Antonio Spurs beat the New Jersey Nets a few years back in the NBA Finals. Ratings for that series in comparison to what they were with, say, the Lakers and anybody with a pulse were non-existant.

I don't really care about the actual pure ratings themselves, because they are a complete, unadulterated fraud -- however, the misguided, uninformed and clueless bulk of the media that bases almost everything that they will cover, focus and hype up does.

The bottom line is, even with the New York Rangers in the conference or Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL would be dealing from a disadvantaged hand. Without them, they almost have no chance dealing with the ridiculous lack of coverage on sports talk radio, sports-based television shows and other forms of entertainment programming.

The NHL needs the Rangers. When it happens in New York, it just is bigger, brighter and better in every way, shape and form.

It is the main reason why the NHL lacks casual popularity that every other major sport enjoys. The NHL combined a deadly cocktail of not having a mega star like Wayne Gretzky or Sidney Crosby in his prime, along with having most of its big market teams like the Rangers, Blackhawks and Kings stink for an extended period of time.

Besides all of these very valid reasons, let's talk pure hockey for a moment. In the Rangers, I watched a team that was just as fun to watch as Buffalo, Ottawa, Detroit and Anaheim -- not to mention a team that had just as much heart, mixed in with a good helping of balanced talent across the board.

There was great goaltending by Henrik Lundqvist, the slick play of Jagr and Michael Nylander and a pretty decent defensive unit.

The Garden was rocking on Sunday as the Rangers' season ended, as it was for the first round and earlier second round games. The Rangers gave their patented center-ice salute to the fans even after defeat to an ear-blowing roar. The only thing that would have been more neat to see, would be if Lord Stanley's Cup was in the middle of that salute.