NEW YORK RANGERS
With their blockbuster trades and free agent misadventures, this team is the NHL’s magpie: a noisy creature snatching any shiny bauble that comes into view, with little thought to its use or purpose. The Rangers are spectacular in their failure, a tumult of aging legends, fickle scorers and brooding all-stars. Hockey fans elsewhere, resenting the team’s strip-mining of impoverished rivals, relish the misery in Manhattan.
Will the misery continue? Pavel Bure’s bum knee leaves a hole on the right side, but the real weakness is across the ice, where Chris Simon and Mathew Barnaby are the only left wingers of note. Then there are the defensemen, who, for all their cleverness with the puck, are often lost at sea when the play turns against them.
But the recent acquisitions are encouraging. Greg de Vries and Anson Carter are not stars, but they are low maintenance, hard-working players who might still improve, which could not always be said for the Kamenskys and Fleurys of the past.
If Lindros, Holik and Kovalev manage even modest improvements, the Rangers have a better forward group than half the teams in the East. And maybe Simon is someone they need, a winger with muscle and basic skills. Perhaps de Vries stabilizes the defense, Darius Kasparaitus settles in and Brian Leetch doesn’t miss too many games. At least they have decent goaltending.
Then again, that’s exactly the kind of useless September speculation that has tortured Rangers’ fans for the better part of a decade.
Trouble: Among sportswriters, terms like "chemistry" and "intangibles" are usually little more than all-purpose nonsense words. But all evidence suggests that something is desperately wrong with the environment in Rangerland.
On the Spot: Glen Sather has already done irreparable damage to his reputation as a hockey genius. Maybe it’s time to ignore the next juicy trade offer and see what this lineup can do.
The Forecast: The Blueshirts are still an overpriced cock-up of a team (they haven’t made the playoffs for six years, so where are all the great draft picks?). But this season they might finally get to lose a playoff round.
The Call: 7th in the Eastern Conference.
Who's In: Goaltender Jussi Markkanen (trade from Edmonton)
Defenseman Greg de Vries (free agent from Colorado)
Defenseman John Jakopin (free agent from San Jose)
Right winger Paul Healey (free agent from Toronto)
Left winger Chris Simon (free agent from Chicago)
Left winger Jan Hlavac (free agent from Carolina)
Left winger Martin Rucinsky (free agent from St. Louis)
Who's Out: Goaltender Mike Richter (retired)
Left winger Ted Donato (free agent to Boston)
Right winger Sandy McCarthy (free agent to Boston)
2002-03 Regular Season Numbers:
Payroll:
$69,177,085, 1st overall
(Hockey News, November 15/02. Bonuses not included.)
- Record: 32-36-10-4 for 78 points.
- At home: 17-18-4-2.
- On the road: 15-18-6-2.
- Finish: 19th overall, 9th in the Eastern Conference, 4th in the Atlantic Division.
- Goals for: 210 (2.6 per game), 18th overall.
- Goals against: 231 (2.81 per game), tied for 21st overall.
- Goal differential: Minus-21, 19th overall.
- Power play: 16.2 percent, 15th overall.
- Penalty kill: 81.2 percent, 29th overall.
Goaltending:
- Mike Dunham, 58-21-26-7, 2.50 GAA, .916 SV PCT, 5 SO.
- Dan Blackburn, 32-8-16-4, 3.17 GAA, .890 SV PCT, 1 SO.
- Mike Richter, 13-5-6-1, 2.94 GAA, .897 SV PCT, 0 SO.
Leaders:
- Center Petr Nedved, 78-27-31-58.
(Kovalev and Carter ranked higher, compiling the majority of their points with previous teams) - Power play points: Defenseman Tom Poti, 81-3-18-21.
(Kovalev and Carter ranked higher, compiling the majority of their points with previous teams) - Game-winning goals: Mark Messier, 5.
- Ice time: Defenseman Brian Leetch, 26:05 per game.
- Plus/minus: Defenseman Cory Cross, plus-13.
