Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Stealth Slips (Again)

Well our anointed hero Sir Stealth has done it again. He is collecting plaudits from the main stream drive-by-media for an 18-year-old "tough" defenseman that he drafted to the surprise of everyone including him. There was no praise from the trio covering the draft on Versus.

He then completed his daily double blunder by trading former number one pick Bobby Sanguinetti to Carolina for a sixth rounder this year and a second rounder next year. I have a question for the Stealth. We drafted a first round pick, Sanguinetti, who was to be the next Leetch, for two meaningless draft picks. It says The Stealth doesn't know what he's doing or he just gave away the store. Do you know what you are doing Sir Stealth? Do you know that you gave away the store?

So we are supposed to get excited about a young stud who is anywhere from 3-5 years away from making an impact, no less the lineup. And with the brainless, impatient coach we have there is no guarantee this kid will ever see the light of day on the Rangers. Lucky him. What do you expect when we have a GM who is not only absent from his duties but also absent from his brain power.

I was right the first time. You don't belong here, Sir Stealth, go back to Edmonton.

ICINGS:

NY Post:
Rangers send Sanguinetti to Hurricanes -- The acquisition of Sanguinetti fits perfectly with the Hurricanes’ philosophy of picking up young defensemen that other teams had drafted high — a list that includes Tim Gleason, Anton Babchuk and Joni Pitkanen — because prospects on defense take so long to develop.

“We have several first-round picks at defenseman that other teams took,” [Hurricane GM] Jim Rutherford said. “We’re kind of living off other people’s drafts and getting their development started and jumping in and us getting them at young ages.” ...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Rangers Fans left "Cheering for the Laundry" and Renney Resurrected

"Cheering for the laundry" is an old Jerry Seinfeld line implying how with the high turnover and mercenaries on a modern pro-sports team, all the fans are really doing is cheering for the laundry or the team jerseys. That seems about right when a player like Donald Brashear gets a Blueshirt, and one like Petr Prucha or Blair Betts loses theirs.

This sense of alienation with the Rangers will continue as long as the Stealth GM and his brainless coach pollute the brand. We are left cheering for our empty blueshirt laundry out of loyalty to the logo.

Anyway, our old dis-enabler, Coach Clueless, Tom Renney, has made a comeback. Putting aside Renney's lack of coaching skills; he is a gentleman and a nice guy. Traits that are alien to our current coach brainless. So a tip of the cap to Renney who takes over the coaching duties in Edmonton. Gentleman Tom at least got us into the playoffs, three years in a row, with a core of players that we loved. That currently qualifies as our salad days instead of our laundry days.

ICINGS:

NY Rangers records:
Coach           Term         Regular season         Playoffs
                             G   W - L - OTL Win%   G   W - L
Tom Renney      2004–2009    327 164-117-46  .502   24  11-13
John Tortorella 2009–present 103 50-40-13    .485    7   3-4

Jim Matheson / Vancouver Sun / EdmontonJournal.com:
Tom Renney new Oilers head coach -- Pat Quinn moves from behind the bench to front office

EDMONTON — Tom Renney, Pat Quinn’s right-hand man last winter, is now calling the shots for the Edmonton Oilers after general manager Steve Tambellini moved up his acknowledged succession plan by a year.

Renney, who was hired last summer along with Quinn, was going to take over as head coach after the 2010-2011 season, but with the Oilers in full-blown rebuild mode, Tambellini decided to move the 67-year-old Quinn into a senior advisory position now. Renney becomes the 10th coach in the club’s history...

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Blackhawks Outclass Flyers

The Blackhawks did more than beat the Flyers to win the Cup, they outclassed them. It's always great when the 'good guys' beat the 'bad guys'. The Flyers have been 'bad guys' since the days of the Broad Street Bullies. They have remnants of that with Bobby Clarke as President, Paul Holmgren as VP and their newly anointed thug, Chris Pronger. Would you believe denying the game puck to the Blackhawks after their first two wins? Of course you believe it.

And the fans are just as bad. The selection of Jonathan Towes as the Conn Smythe winner was greeted with a chorus of boos. It's a shame that a city that uses the late, great, classy lady, Kate Smith, to sing the national anthem, couldn't muster up one minute of appreciation to an outstanding performance. Like I said, look at the top of the organization. The fish stinks from the head.

But there is always satisfaction when good triumphs over evil. It's like enjoying Donald Brashear get beaten up even though he is wearing Ranger Blue. So the Blackhawks have ended their 49 year drought and all Ranger fans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their heroes 54 year run of futility is safe. For now. I'm sure one of the unoriginal six, like Columbus or Florida, will shatter the record some day.

So again, congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks and a big collective boo to the Philadelphia Flyers. Now I know why The Dark Ranger hates you guys so much. For Ranger fans it's 16 years and counting. I'm sure The Stealth will find a way to continue that run and further his credentials as the number one blowhard in sports management.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Blackhawks Win in 6

The prescient Pundit called this one. Blackhawks in six.

Patrick Kane overtime game winner.


ICINGS:
via SNYRangersBlog / NNH.com:
Dellapina recounts the Stanley Cup's busiest day

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Happy Anniversary Slats!


I would like to congratulate Glen Sather on his tenth anniversary of service as President and General Manager of the New York Rangers.

Among your great accomplishments, my favorite was trading Brian Leetch to the Toronto Maple Leafs for prospects Maxim Kondratiev, Jarkko Immonen, a first-round pick which became Lauri Korpikoski and a second-round pick which became Michael Sauer. With that move you showed the loyalty (to one of the greatest players this team has ever had) and a keen eye for talent that has been the hallmark of your career. Where would our team be today without Maxim, Jarkko, Lauri and Michael? Who cares that Brian got his 1,000 career point as a Bruin.

Thanks for getting rid of Blair Betts and picking up Donald Brashear. What a further display of loyalty to a team player! What a better demonstration of your loyalty to the fans could there be than selecting a player every fan hated! And Donald was such a valuable addition you gave him a two year deal; what an eye for value!

Thanks also for getting players such as Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure and Wade ($32.8 million) Redden. Your eye for talent and value just continues to improve!

Seriously, in ten years Sather has shown a lack of respect for loyalty and a lack of respect for Ranger tradition. He has been disrespectful to the media, players and fans alike. He has also shown a lack of ability to assess talent and an inability to deal with the salary cap.

And, seriously, the results have been horrific. In these ten years the Rangers have won exactly two playoff series, while the Devils have won two Stanley Cups.


Sather must go.

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