754 replies to this topic

[sammyk]

Serves ESPN right for showing a 1-0 game instead of a game with 6 goals!

['7']

espn played the odds, but they got burned. This game was a joke. They should've left there skates at home and wore cleats.

[NJDevs4978]

Isles remaining games: at Tor, at Mon, NJ, Chi, Tor, at NJ, NYR, at Det, Atl, at Car

Habs remaining games: NJ, Isles, Car, Wash, at Buff, Ott, at Car, at TB, NYR

Rag$ remaining games: Buf, at Phil, Pitt, at Bos, Atl, at NYI, NJ, at Mon

Isles-75 10 GR
Habs-70 9 GR
Rag$-70 8 GR

Who do we root for when the Isles play the Habs? I guess Isles since they have the lead right now.

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

The HOS was shocked to see Matthew crying in the penalty box after getting the crap beat out of him by Asham!

[sammyk]

Hehe, MSG conveniently didn't show that!

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

Yes, but ESPN sure did!
How sad.
How very sad.

[sundstrom]

what's better?

stringing the rangers along

or just ending it now

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

String 'em up by the balls, baby!

Here comes the pain!

[bg.]

If I were you guys I'd worry more about your team than the Rangers.

Playing Toronto in round one is a totally different animal then playing than playing Boston.

[BlueSkirt]

BG-
Just enjoying your misery...
Same as you enjoy ours.

[NJDevs4978]

HOS I did make sure to see the ESPN highlights...yeah it looked like Barnababy was crying He even knocked the camera away.

Personally I'd rather have the Ranger$ season end ASAP, I don't want them to have any chance this close to the end of the season of getting in.

[StarDew]

Cripes....the dreaded #1 tile is the only one left...batten down the hatches

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

No biggie.
That tile will be gone before you know it!

[Derek21]

A good Sherry Ross column:


http://www.nydailyne...95p-63460c.html


Pavel disappears, but
bad trades go on forever





Pavel Bure was out of the Rangers lineup last night, which normally would be headline news except for the fact that he has been a scratch in a sweater for the past 12 games.
Bure spent the previous 31 games recovering from arthoscopic knee surgery. Bure managed to score five goals since his return, one on a penalty shot, but what he will be remembered for is plays like the one in New Jersey Saturday afternoon. Bure carried the puck down the right wing, stared at the crest on Scott Stevens' jersey, and curled back out of the Devils zone before Stevens could come anywhere close to hitting him.

That's not the kind of play the Rangers needed last night in what might have been their last big game of the season, against the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.

"I think his knee's bothering him, so I really can't put him in a situation where he doesn't look comfortable," Rangers coach and GM Glen Sather said at yesterday's morning skate.

"I said, 'Pavel, you just can't play if you can't compete,'" Sather said. "I said, 'Tell me what the reason is,' and he said he's worried about his knee. I said, 'I'll speak to your agent.' I spoke to (Mike Gillis) and I don't know whether it's something serious, or just psychosomatic, or what it is. But until he feels really comfortable about it, I just don't think he can play."

Sather later said that Bure was day-to-day, for a Ranger season that has only eight games remaining.

It's quite possible we have seen the last of Bure this season, and even if we haven't noticed him much in the past few weeks, that can be chalked up as another disastrous personnel decision the Rangers have made during Sather's reign.

While Sather may have upgraded the career goals total of his team, as well as its payroll, since taking over for the fired Neil Smith in 2000, are the Rangers any better off?

They are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. Last year, the Islanders snapped a streak of seven years without playing in the postseason, but that stretch was memorable for con man owners and payroll struggles.

Here is what the Rangers have given up in the past three years for Bure, Eric Lindros, Alexei Kovalev, Tom Poti and Mike Dunham: Filip Novak, Tomas Kloucek, a first-round draft pick in 2002, Jan Hlavac, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Brendl, Mikael Samuelsson, Mike York, assorted draft picks, other warm bodies and about $5 million in cash.
Not an All-Star in the bunch, but ask yourself: Would the Rangers be in any worse shape with those players growing together than they are with their mismatched marquee names?

Sather traded for Bure exactly one year ago today. It was a deal the Rangers couldn't pass up. Sure. Why are the Rangers the only team making these deals that no one can pass up? Why is everyone else hanging up the phone?

It's not just about the money. Toronto and Detroit and Philadelphia have resources and cash to spend, too.

The same rule applies to hockey players as it does to used cars and cheap Hawaiian vacations: If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Goals are the only things that matter with Bure. He doesn't make other players around him better. He doesn't do the little things that don't show up in the summaries to win games.

Before Jim Dolan starts foaming about "hindsight," let me point out that the above paragraph is reprinted from a Daily News column dated March 18, 2002.

It is no small coincidence that Bure has appeared in the playoffs only once in the past seven (going on eight) seasons.

There is no question that Bure is playing in some pain. So is Brian Leetch, who keeps showing up night after night with a sore ankle, and who knows how many other Rangers?

The Rangers are better off having good players who want to play than superstars who don't. At least Bure has eliminated that decision for them.

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

That article was sublime.
Thanks for posting it, Kovy.

Once a cherry-picker, always a cherry-picker!
Bure fears Scott Stevens.

[sheeps]

HOS, are you excited about the open-ice hits coming up? The highlights of tonight's game makes it look like we're going to have an excellent playoff showing. Rafalski kills!

BG, this thread has its ups and downs, don't concentrate on its downs alone.

[HarbingerOfSorrow]

Sheepy, some people live for highlight-reel goals.
Others live for breath-taking saves.

But the HOS lives for CLEAN, BUT DEVASTATING PUMP-UP-YOUR-TEAMMATES AND DEMORALIZE-YOUR-OPPONENT OPEN-ICE HITS!
As if you didn't already know!

[sheeps]

Sheepy, some people live for highlight-reel goals.
Others live for breath-taking saves.

But the HOS lives for CLEAN, BUT DEVASTATING PUMP-UP-YOUR-TEAMMATES AND DEMORALIZE-YOUR-OPPONENT OPEN-ICE HITS!
As if you didn't already know!

I did already know, HOS.

I'm quite pumped myself!

P.S., HOS, 21 means 21. My fakey was turned down for St. Patty's Day. They should follow Irish laws on St. Patty's Day! Oh well, seven more months...

[bg.]

Bure scored 19 goals in 39 games - that's a 40 goal pace over an entire season. While that might be good enought for just about anyone out there, it just isn't good enough for Bure. Even with goal scoring a far cry from what it was in the mid-90's he is better than that. Like Pavel says his knees will never be 100% again, I just hope they can get to the point next year where he can play 65+ games at a high level.

65 games, 35 or so goals is still nothing to scoff at, and if he can provide that next year I for one will take it and he should sit the next 9 and see if he can get to that level.

In Ottawa he got caught from behind on a breakaway by Radek Bonk. That to me is more telling than anything. In my mind there is no question he wants to do it, he just can't.

As far that Ross column, I say no, the Rangers would not be better having kept those all those players than the ones they've acquired. Dunham being included makes that arguement a moot point. In 37 games as a Ranger he's put up a 2.35 GAA, .921 Save %, those are pretty solid numbers. He might not be at an all-star level, however he certainly falls into the "good enough" category.

[-C-]

A 0.921 save % is all-star calibre.