Interpreting Sather-Speak

If you have yet to see it, Larry Brooks caught up with Glen Sather (likely in Philadelphia after the GM meetings) and the Ranger GM actually spoke to him. Sather didn't call him out, nobody got beat up at the bus stop ... actual quotes about the Rangers. Now, let's face it, Glen's MO is to ignore the press and do whatever he wants so why now?

Well, the season subscription renewal date is Monday, June 14th.

My guess is that they aren't getting the numbers they wanted so the big brass told Glen to open the door a little to give the common folk a ray of hope. Seeing as the wait list disappeared over the course of last summer and attendance last season was at its lowest since before the lockout, something had to be done.

And that brings us back to the article. Let's go through it, blow-by-blow, and interpret what Sather was saying:

“We can go over and over why we failed to get the one point that would have put us in, we can find a lot of excuses for it, but losing [Ryan] Callahan and [Sean] Avery the last couple of weeks really hurt our forecheck, and not having [Marian] Gaborik at full strength after the Olympics was a major blow for us.

Or 'I built a good team and my coach did a good job butcha can't do nothin bout injuries ... the hockey gods are cruel bitches.'

"But you know, every team can find excuses why they fell short. We just weren’t quite good enough over the course of the season. But if we had won that final game, would we have been tough enough to compete in the playoffs the way the Flyers have? Could we be where they are now? I think so.”

'You do realize that I built teams that have won Cups before so of course this team could have won the Cup, had things worked out.' Do you think he would say anything else? "If we had won that final game"? C'mon. If I had just picked the right numbers, I would have won the lottery.

“We have to get better,” Sather acknowledged. “And the way we’re going to get better is by staying within our organization and giving our prospects the time to grow and the opportunity to play in New York."

'Because we missed the playoffs and lost the extra revenue, Dolan won't let me overspend on any big free agents like I want to so I'm stuck with what we have. And kids are the only ones who will fit under the cap thanks to the contracts I gave Redden, Rozy, Drury, Gabby and Hank.'

“This has been a long process, and it’s ongoing, but as we go into this summer, our plan is to keep our own players. I can tell you one thing — we are certainly not going to overpay for free agents. If we can improve with a signing that makes sense, we’ll look into it, but we want to give our guys the first shot.”

'You have waited a decade for me to build a winner, so what is another year? And if I can figure out a way to sneak a signing past the boss - or can come up with some convoluted excuse - you had better believe that I am spending money.'

“I told Donald [Brashear] this week that he would not be playing for the Rangers,” Sather told Slap Shots. “After the statements he made, absolutely not; that was the end of it.”

'After I gave him that much money, he hurt my feelings and the big meaniehead can rot in the minors.'

On defenseman Marc Staal and Dan Girardi: “Those two guys are part of our core; of course we’re signing them.”

'The options on the market aren't as appealing as these guys, especially since they are RFAs and I can screw them if I want to.'

“We want to keep Shelley, it’s just a question of whether and when we can get it done,” Sather said. “We want to keep Vinny, and I think we should be able to do that if the contract request isn’t out of whack.”

'If these two guys don't want raises, we will bring them back. Vinny has to take a discount though.'

On Wisconsin senior defenseman Ryan McDonagh and junior center Derek Stepan: “We’d like to get them in and have them earn jobs.”

'If McDonagh makes it, it helps justify my Gomez deal and Stepan was good at the WJC so I remember his name.'

“We’re excited to see whether [Evgeny] Grachev and [Dale] Weise and some of our other kids can earn jobs.

'Jim Schoenfeld is excited to see if Grachev and Weise and some of the other kids can earn jobs and he won't shut up about it.'

“We just didn’t have enough last year, and certainly after the Olympics, Gaborik — our best player — was just a shadow of himself. He just didn’t have the explosiveness or speed."

'Damn Olympics, I hope Bettman takes my players out of that silly tournament. The games were past my bedtime.'

“But we’re looking forward. And we’re excited about it. We’re building an organization where we’re going to have serious competition for jobs at training camp. There are 23 spots and they’re going to the best 23."

'Please buy season tickets. Pretty please?'

“A player’s contract isn’t going to get him a spot on the team if he doesn’t earn it, and that goes for everyone. Everyone is fighting for a job. They all know that. If they don’t, they should.”

'Jimmy D threatened my job and shit rolls downhill so someone had better step up because I am sure as shit not going anywhere. Muahahahahaha.'