Halpern To Help

In 1926 the front office of the fledgling New York Rangers decided to market their goaltender Lorne Chabot as Lorn Chabotsky, in the hopes of appealing to the massive Jewish population of the city. Since then a few actual Jews have played on Broadway, including Hy Buller, '94 Black Ace Mike Hartman and Mathieu Schneider. And now Jeff Halpern will don a Blueshirt as well.

As with those guys, adding Halpern is no public relations gimmick. The recent Washington Capital fills the hole left by Blair Betts three years ago - a capable, consistent center who wins faceoffs, kills penalties and works his ass off. A former captain, Halpern will add some more veteran sense to the room and add another layer between Tortorella and the kids. He helps advance my Stockholm Syndrome theory, as he played for the egomaniacal dictator in Tampa in 2008.

This follows in the recent tradition of Glen Sather's signings - have one good addition, have one horrible addition. Well, after making the mistakes of Arron Asham and Micheal Haley, Sather has leveled the scales with Halpern and Taylor Pyatt. The only issue it presents is that the Blueshirts now have six fourth liners (if you include Haley as a NHLer, which he will hopefully never be again) and one first liner set to start next season. But the season is still a few months away so we just have to wait and see what Sather will do.