BLOOMINGBURG, NY – I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank my very Irish sweetie, Kelly Ann, for her entertaining post last week. This woman understands me like no other and is extremely patient with me especially during Bruins hockey season. It’s no surprise that I’m chiming in on the past week regarding the New York Rangers.
Monday Night Felony
The Rangers season was done when the Washington Capitals, who are jockeying for playoff positioning with three other division foes, visited MSG on Monday. Halfway through the game, chief punk and noted cheap shot artist Tom Wilson got a 10-minute misconduct for punching one lightweight in Pavel Buchnevich in the head on the ground while the Ranger forward’s back was turned and body slammed pacifist Artemi Panarin seconds later in the ensuing scrum (see rugby). Apparently, on ice crime is treated like any other crime happening in NYC these days, as Wilson received a $5,000 slap on the wrist from the NHL. He was also set free for the following game between the two teams on Wednesday night. Less than five minutes into the game, the Caps penalty box looked like a rush hour subway car due to the lack of proper discipline by the league. A one-game suspension would have quelled what every hockey fan knew was coming in the form of fights and chippy hockey.
Jimmy Dolan
WTF are you thinking, you spoiled son of a-rich-business-magnate and drunken, guitar-God wannabe? You know nothing about basketball and even oodles less about hockey! Despite missing out on the playoffs in a top-heavy division, your hockey team is making great strides and would have qualified for the post-season in any of the three other divisions. So you wake up Wednesday and fire brilliant hockey minds GM Jeff Gorton and President John Davidson. Gorton is a guy I know a lot about. As a Bruins fan I hold him more responsible than then GM Peter Chiarelli for Boston winning the 2011 Stanley Cup. In 2005-06 Gorton was interim GM for five months and engineered a draft that netted the team Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand.He signed free agents Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara & traded washed up goalie Andrew Raycroft for Tuukka Rask. The trading of Raycroft opened the door for Tim Thomas to emerge. Look at Gorton’s drafts and trades as Rangers GM. He rarely made a bad one.
The fallout in cleaning the front office is going to be palpable in the short term with the interruption of the continuity and chemistry in the organization. I’ll not pretend to know much about the Rangers AHL affiliate but a system at the NHL level is usually practiced in the minor club to ease transition for call ups. It stands to reason that coach David Quinn will be replaced if Dumb Dolan’s reason for the firings is due to no playoffs in five years. New coach, new Prez, new system? I’m predicting two steps back next year for the Rangers, from which they may not recover. Scrapping what was a good blueprint drawn by Gorton is crazy and he not be unemployed for long.
Come back tomorrow for another great sports mind that Jim Dolan doesn’t care about, Junior Blaber.
