The above title is a New York Rangers rift on the Academy Award nominated motion picture, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The movie is about a man, Benjamin Button, who ages backwards from age 86 to birth.
The Curious Case of Petr Prucha is a puzzling NHL story about a very talented NY Rangers player, whose career has strangely gone backwards from a rookie sensation to a frequently scratched scrub.
Prucha, who scored 30 goals and 17 assists during his 2005-06 rookie season has only played in 20 of 48 games and scored 3 goals, and 3 assists this season. This season he watches more Rangers games than he has played in. However, during his very limited ice time his performance has shown that he can still bring the Garden faithful to their feet.
What has happened to Prucha and why has Rangers coach Tom Renney been running his career clock backwards? In the movie, Benjamin Button ends up dying as an infant in New Orleans in 2002. Rangers fans have to worry that Prucha's Broadway career will soon die in 2009.
This afternoon Eklund at Hockey Buzz kicks some more dirt on Prucha's Big Apple future. Rumors: Prucha to...:
I am chasing several rumors today prior to leaving for Montreal.Rangers fans have to shudder at Prucha's recent remarks regarding where his Rangers career stands at the moment. It does not look good for Prucha on Broadway and his story looks like it's coming to a climax.
The most intriguing is that Petr Prucha may once again be available so that the Rangers can begin to address other needs...The team that most wants Prucha is the Penguins, but the Rangers aren't moving him in the division. Four other teams are now in on this. Vancouver, Colorado, Minnesota, Buffalo and Nashville.
I would give Vancouver a distinct advantage at this point. and this trade could go down as early as this weekend. In fact I am told there are as many as 4 major deals that could go down this weekend...so Montreal will be alot of fun and I will be updating the entire time.
As Larry Brooks at the NY Post reported:
PRUCHA BACK ON RANGERS BENCH --
"When the team needs a spark by changing players, there are not too many who can come out, and so it's me," Prucha told The Post following yesterday's morning skate. "I'm disappointed."Dec 31, 2008, Newsday:
Prucha, a healthy scratch for 27 of the first 38 games, was in street clothes for last night's match at the Garden against the Ducks after a run of nine straight played. The winger scored goals in each of his first two after being restored to active duty before recording three assists in the following seven matches.
"I feel like I need to [score] points to stay in," Prucha said. "The coach probably doesn't have much confidence in me to keep me in the lineup." ...
Despite being scratched, Prucha still has desire --
Renney said Prucha has been able to do that as well as any player he's ever seen. "It's not always a walk in the park and you have to be an independent thinker," Renney said. "There's a great saying that, sometimes when you're looking for a helping hand, it's at your own arm. I think [Petr] has known that and now he's been able to grasp that and run with it."Most fans would agree with the Bleacher Report's sentiment from last month, Note to Tom Renney: Keep Petr Prucha in the Rangers Lineup --
Prucha is much more valuable to the Rangers donning his No. 25 that sitting in a press box in a shirt and tie for weeks at a time...However, it now looks like this Curious Case of Petr Prucha story will have a sad ending here on Broadway.
If Renney knows what's good for the team, he will keep playing him. But, then again, I don't think many Rangers fans would be surprised if he isn't in the lineup once....
better would be gomez anywhere....cant we trade redden to russia and somehow get jagr back?
Redden for Jagr would destroy the trade balance with Russia. He's put the KHL on the map. Putin would rather see one of his children go than Jagr. He signed a special Russian federal law last year to help slow down NHL raids on their players.
Why a lightweight like Gomez is considered an untouchable is a sign of the bonehead contracts Tomato Face has locked in.
Doublespeak and bafflegab, Woody Allen could get some great comedic inspiration from Renney's utterances. Talk about dancing.
Ground control to Major Tom: I wish you would use the binary approach - you like a guy and want to play him (and stick with him), or you don't like a guy and you don't play him. Mike Keenan (and others) uses this confoundingly simple principle to great effect.
Renney is the opposite of a straight shooter.
Good coaches like Tom Coughlin of the Giants are able to adapt and change their approach to the players, but still remain a straight shooter. He won the big one.
Then there are coaches like Renney who is locked into some weird ideological mindset that keeps everyone guessing on what's going on. We know where this is going.
I really do not think I could take it if they let Prucha go. Renney's treatment of him is down right prejudice and makes me have nothing but contempt for Renney.
First Jagr, Avery, then Shanahan, and now they have Prucha but insane Renney doesn't play him.
Let's have Renney sit for the rest of the season and have Prucha play.
Pruchafan, I completely agree. Renney is the one who needs to go. They need a fresh look at this team and you'd think any reasonable hockey person would see that Prucha deserves a fair chance on one of the top three lines.
But I'm not holding my breath.
I place the blame clearly on the arrogant shoulders of Glen Sather. Has anyone had a worse off-season in history? Seriously, no hyperbole here. Loses Avery, Shanny, Jagr and Straka...acquires Zherdev, Fritsche, Reisemiller, Khalinin and Redden. In summary, he built this team around Gomez and Drury upfront and Redden and Rosival on defense. Where would you place either of these pairs? Would EITHER Gomez or Dury make the top 20 forwards in the league? NO WAY. Top 30? We can debate. You can't build a team around "clutch" playoff players...you build your team around studs. In terms of defense, Rosy probably makes my top 30, but Redden looks shot, and Sather signed him for GASP 6 years I think?
Tyutin for Zherdev was probably a wash long term. We lost our most physical young dman for an anomoly.
Staal and Dubinsky and Girardi (f/a) were SOLID, solid picks, to a lesser degree, so was Callahan the jury on Dawes is still out...but then you can balance those out with the Jessimans and Montoyas.
What a mess. I can't understand how someone known for his grit (he had no hands as a player) could build such a soft team...I have been screaming about this for years...this teams wears NO ONE out...every goal has to be perfect, they get pushed off the puck -- often not for effort, but becauase this is SMURFS 2 -- Dury, Gomez, Callahan, Naslund, Prucha, etc etc are all 6 ft and under, 200 lbs and under guys. This is not today's NHL.
What an amazing mis management. Even Neil Smith did not do this. Sather is going to literally destroy 2 different eras of the Rangers -- the crazy spending on minor players before the lock out, and the over reaction to soft players post. What does he have...? 2 playoff series win in his ENTIRE tenure?
I place the blame clearly on the arrogant shoulders of Glen Sather. Has anyone had a worse off-season in history? Seriously, no hyperbole here. Loses Avery, Shanny, Jagr and Straka...acquires Zherdev, Fritsche, Reisemiller, Khalinin and Redden. In summary, he built this team around Gomez and Drury upfront and Redden and Rosival on defense. Where would you place either of these pairs? Would EITHER Gomez or Dury make the top 20 forwards in the league? NO WAY. Top 30? We can debate. You can't build a team around "clutch" playoff players...you build your team around studs. In terms of defense, Rosy probably makes my top 30, but Redden looks shot, and Sather signed him for GASP 6 years I think?
Tyutin for Zherdev was probably a wash long term. We lost our most physical young dman for an anomoly.
Staal and Dubinsky and Girardi (f/a) were SOLID, solid picks, to a lesser degree, so was Callahan the jury on Dawes is still out...but then you can balance those out with the Jessimans and Montoyas.
What a mess. I can't understand how someone known for his grit (he had no hands as a player) could build such a soft team...I have been screaming about this for years...this teams wears NO ONE out...every goal has to be perfect, they get pushed off the puck -- often not for effort, but becauase this is SMURFS 2 -- Dury, Gomez, Callahan, Naslund, Prucha, etc etc are all 6 ft and under, 200 lbs and under guys. This is not today's NHL.
What an amazing mis management. Even Neil Smith did not do this. Sather is going to literally destroy 2 different eras of the Rangers -- the crazy spending on minor players before the lock out, and the over reaction to soft players post. What does he have...? 2 playoff series win in his ENTIRE tenure?
The only thing that makes sense is something PERSONAL happened because why would Press Box Pete sit while V0r0s, Dawes get chance after chance. In the Bergen Record Tender Tom said Prucha is not surrounded by the same talent that made him successful and he cannot create. Huh? He makes great passes, keeps plays alive, understands to get the puck in deep, goes hard to the net. For a team that cannot score why sit this kid. I will miss him and that is one of the main reasons why Renney will be fired soon!
Sather has buried the Rangers. I think a weary sense of resignation and disgust has settled in with Rangers fans.
Too many soft players with hard long term contracts. It's like being the victim of a Ponzi scheme, so when the charade comes crashing down you are left broke and bitter.
Sather is the Bernard Madoff of the NHL. He 'made off' with the Rangers future.