Canucked! Rangers Talk Trade. Is Poti Going?

Petr Prucha tried to do it all alone offensively last night, and it almost worked.He rebounded a shot for a power play goal (yes, that is correct, power play goal) in the second period and then rifled one in the third and then clanged one off the post a little later in the third period. The first two goals were game tiers, the post shot would have given the Rangers the lead. Thanks to a poor defensive play by Michael Nylander the Rangers lost when Matt Cooke took the puck away from Nylander and buried the eventual game winner. The Vancouver Canucks beat the Rangers 3-2.

Prucha now has 15 goals, two more than Sidney Crosby and three less than Alexander Ovechkin. Prucha has scored nine goals in the last six games and twelve goals in his last twelve games. Add him to the Crosby, Ovechkin, Lundqvist sweepstakes for rookie of the year. He is absolutely fearless. Speaking of Lundqvist, The Prince played great, making 28 saves. He was victimized by his own team on two goals. Nylander on the game winner and Poti on the Canucks second goal.

Poti's name has now come up in trade talks with Anaheim over the possible acquisition of Petr Sykora, according to Larry Brooks of the New York Post. I originally voted thumbs down on a Sykora trade but trading Poti for Sykora would be an excellent move by the Rangers. In getting Sykora the Rangers would have a strong addition to the power play. Lets face it, Don Maloney would be a strong addition to this power play. The Rangers are now 6-62 in the last ten games on the power play with Prucha getting five of those goals. Tom Renney, are you sure you don't want to give Jaromir Jagr a shot at the point on the power play?

Poti's departure would be an addition by subtraction. The talk is that the Rangers would want an experienced defenseman to take Poti's place. Jason Strudwick who is now the seventh defenseman could move right in and either Thomas Pock or Ivan Baranka could be brought up from Hartford to fill the void. The time to move is now and Anaheim seems intent on unloading Sykora. The question is, will Sather make the move? Poti has always been Sather's fair haired boy. He drafted him in Edmonton and after the fans basically booed Poti out of Edmonton Sather traded Mike York to the Oilers for Poti. Poti was brought in to be heir apparent to Brian Leetch but Poti suffers much in comparision to Brian Lettch. Poti has been benched twice this year by Tom Poti. No way Glen Sather would ever bench him.

The Rangers have performed well on the ice this year. Much credit to the team and to Tom Renney and his coaching staff. Now lets see if Sather and Maloney can perform off the ice and bring in the players to make this team a playoff contender and then who knows what. But don't move any of the current rookies and youngsters to do this, because this rebuilding year is going along just fine.

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