Monday, February 23, 2009

Happy Trails Tom

"I thought we played hard. Anything drastic, is to go outside of what the needs are right now. We are going to continue to play hard, stay the course, keep working hard (and) go after wins." --Tom Renney, after last night's loss
Sorry Tom, staying the course just isn't good enough. After staying up so late last night, I awoke to the news that Renney was canned, and I can't say I am shocked. I don't think anyone is.

Perry Pearn was also thankfully shown the door, something that should have happened at least a year ago, if not more. He openly admitted that the power play was his responsibility and the special team is more of a disaster than Penn Station at 3am on a Saturday night. Mike Pelino and Benoit Allaire kept their jobs, which is good because they are both capable and intelligent. Pelino has the players' ears and Allaire has made Hank into a top five NHL goaltender.

But back to Renney. Say what you will, the man coached the team to three straight playoff appearances. He managed to keep the enigmatic Jaromir Jagr interested while not letting the Sean Avery circus get out of hand. He brought back some honour and respect to a franchise that had failed so often since 1994 and was largely responsible for the lockout.

Don't fool yourself, firing Renney will not solve this team's woes. Glen Sather dragged the team down with big money signings at the turn over the century and he has done it again this last summer. The money mistakes won't be fixed by putting a firebrand behind the bench but it should help.

Renney too often threw his hands up, either not knowing what was going wrong or not being able to fix it. And when a coach does that, a negative light is shown on the general manager and the Rangers general manager is a petty, petty man. Sather plays the recluse to hide his incompetence while collecting his massive paycheque and when people started to blame him of all people for the team's woes, well ... he just can't have that.

So Renney takes the fall. As I said, he was a good coach, who did some good things for the Rangers. He will get another job somewhere else and I for one certainly wish him luck. He just wasn't the right coach for Sather's crop of overpaid miscreants and now the dark master general manager has his big chance to pick that proper person to head the ship. Let's hope he picks well (but I wouldn't bet on it).

8 comments:

danae said...

Disappointed Micheletti didn't get the boot too. He's certainly not contributing anything to the Rangers either.

Graying Mantis said...

Nice job on the game recap and the tribute to Renney. The team needs to get focused quickly because of the upcoming schedule. I don't know if the coaching change will lead to immediate results.

I was ashamed to be at the game for several reasons including the lack of fans for the retirement ceremony. It's funny that I remember the foes (Kelly, Mikita and Maholovich) more than the ancient Rangers. I didn't start following the Blueshirts until 1970. They toiled in anonymity and that's why they should have been honored a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

I forgot where I heard it, but I read somewhere that the new coach would be John Tortorella.

Unknown said...

Personally, I would love to see Ted Nolan behind the bench. He had the Sabres in the hunt year after year, and watching what he did with so little in such a bad political situation during his time in Uniondale has me sold on him. The man can coach. Unfortunately his reputation as a GM killer will probably keep that from happening, especially considering who our GM is.

Noah's Art said...

and torts it is! i think he's the right man for the job. he'll kick redden's ass.

s2404 said...

Thanks for the great and not so great seasons Tom Renny, all the best. Quality coach, quality man.

Anonymous said...

Considering the big reason that Redden signed in NY was to work with Perry Pern, I wonder how this will affect his desire to play. Maybe Torts will scare him straight.

Renney is a good man and a very good coach, he just didn't use the heavy hand when he needed to and the players knew he never would so they took advantage of it.

I can't wait to see Torts light a fire under these guys--Zherdev is going to drive him mental.

Anonymous said...

Renney did a good job with what he had. Tough to keep overpriced players hungry. Speaking of overpriced. Sather blows...Maybe the Italian stallion and Avery can spice things up. Should be at the very least interesting.