Chris Drury: A Sad Commentary

Larry Brooks wrote today that the Rangers can't buy out Chris Drury. Because of Drury's knee injury, Glen Sather can't hand him a golden parachute and send him out of town. Instead, should things play out as Brooks expects, Dru will be placed on Long Term Injured Reserve because the knee "will render him medically unable to play next season." So no matter what happens in the next few days/weeks/months - whether Dru is bought out, placed on LTIR or pulls a Naslund and retires - one thing is all but certain: Chris Drury will not play for the Rangers again.

Please, wait a moment before hosting a celebratory pizza party.

Sure, Drury's tenure as a Ranger was not a good one. But the proud man, a winner throughout his career prior to his time in New York, is headed off Broadway as a loser. While being handsomely compensated, the guy lost his job and it was not for a lack of effort on his part. That is the one thing - when all is said and done - that can be said about Drury as a Ranger: he never gave it less than everything he had. And for that we should pause before delighting in his dismissal.

No, seriously, put that slice of pizza down.

It is not his fault that Glen Sather handed him that ridiculous contract, five years at $7.05 million per. It is not his fault that the bar was set in accordance to that contract and not his abilities. Throughout his NHL career he succeeded when he wasn't relied upon to be 'the man' and that role was thrust upon him. Granted, it was shared by the grinning Gomez, but the MexiCan't clearly didn't care. It weighed heavily upon Drury and he did care, except when it was Christmas time.

Ah, the infamous Christmas quote. On December 23rd, 2008 Drury assisted on three of four Ranger goals as they leaped out to a 4-0 lead against the Capitals before blowing it and losing in overtime 5-4. After the game Dru told the media, "“I’m certainly not going to let it ruin my Christmas and I don’t think anyone here is going to let it ruin their break, either."

Now only the insane would ever truly believe that the players, in this day and age, live and die with the results the way fans do. We may want it to be that way - we even may often delude ourselves that it is indeed so - but, deep inside, we know that that just isn't how it goes. These guys are professional athletes doing a job - if you have a bad day at work, are you going to let it ruin your holiday? But the problem is that Drury said it out loud. And, in doing so, he burst our bubble of delusion. And that is unacceptable.

Before Drury was given a sweater with a C stitched on the breast, I wrote that "the C brings with it a legacy and it should not be tarnished just because fans or pundits feel that somebody has to have it." Since that time, especially post-Xmas comment, I called Drury the worst captain in Ranger history. It is a harsh statement but one I stand by. Now that is based on the observations of an outsider; reports say Drury was respected and loved inside the locker room and that is all fine and good. Hell, that is wonderful. But that doesn't change that for us fans in the stands his ability was never apparent. Drury never picked the team up on his shoulders on the ice, never gave impassioned speeches on the bench and was a monotone, benign cliche machine in interviews.

The Rangers had many great captains over the years from Bill Cook to Red Sullivan to Dave Maloney, but the station will forever be defined by Mark Messier. The Captain set a standard that will be, frankly, unmatchable. It will take something and someone extraordinary to simply get out of the shadow cast by him. The sheer skill of Jaromir Jagr couldn't do it and the quiet determination of Chris Drury couldn't do it. We can't blame Drury for that because like his contract, that shadow was not of his doing.

What can we blame him for? For not having Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg around to distract defenses? For not being Mark Messier and willing this team to victories? For not being the exceptional fourth liner that he was in the Olympics? No. We can't blame him for any of that. Say what you want but his character and his effort were completely unassailable.

And because of that the pizza should be put away. Seeing someone with the class and dignity of Chris Drury exit the organization is not cause for celebration. The Drury era was brought about by Glen Sather and now Glen Sather has ended it. Best wishes to Drury and a warning to the GM, for he can't possibly put us through that again.

It might ruin our Christmases.

A Quick Update

After more than 16 hours traveling yesterday, I am back in the ole U.S. of A. It feels weird to tell you the truth, and it didn't help that I came home, dropped off my luggage and went over to a friend's house for a late fantasy draft. When I hit the wall, I hit it hard but I am starting to recover.

While I was running around, Chris Drury was named captain and the Rangers re-assigned Brian Fahey and Corey Potter to Hartford. Both moves were expected and thus not a big deal. Drury is supposedly a "big guy in the locker room" according to a source of mine and let's face it, he is clutch. I am sure Renney was already thinking of giving him the captaincy going into training camp and Dru cemented that C with the game-tying goal the other day. Good for him, but I still think he needs to put himself out there a little more, you know?"

That's all for now as I have to get moving towards the city for the viewing party. Hope to see you all there!

The Captain Conundrum

There is much debate of late over who will become the 25th captain of the New York Rangers. From all that I have read, and I am not about to link all of the pieces as both MSM and bloggers are weighing in on it left and right, everyone seems to think this is a two horse race: Chris Drury vs. Scott Gomez.

I find it remarkable and completely disagree with either choice. First off, let's look at why they are the leading candidates: Both have won Cups, both can put up some points, both are signed to well-paid, long-term contracts. The arguing points used by proponents of each against the other is that Drury is too quiet and Gomez acts too immature. Both statements are true, and that should disqualify each of them in the battle for the captaincy.

Markus Naslund and Wade Redden both have worn letters before but both fall into the same category as Drury as leaders by example. Captains of that ilk work in Detroit, in Colorado and in Ottawa but they don't work here. History has proven that.

New York needs a cult of personality to lead them, and none of the aforementioned 2008-09 Rangers qualify as that. Mark Messier, widely acknowledged as The Captain, was one. Neither his predecessor (Kelly Kisio) nor his successors (Brian Leetch and Jaromir Jagr) had the power to force their will upon others, to motivate others and to resuscitate others. They were great, great hockey players but they couldn't make those around them great.

And New York demands greatness.

Is that quality in the current Ranger locker room? In skill ... perhaps but, at least at the moment and at least on the surface, not in personality. Drury and Gomez are both good hockey players and proven winners but Drury keeps to himself and Gomez smiles in postgame interviews after losses. The short term solution for this is to spread three A's around until someone steps up and brings the team with them.

Perhaps the captaincy could go to Staal, Girardi, Dawes or Callahan but not yet. The C brings with it a legacy and it should not be tarnished just because fans or pundits feel that somebody has to have it.

A few follow ups ...

First off, I would be remiss if I didn't wish Jed Ortmeyer the best in Nashville. As many of you know, he was my favourite player and I think his heart and work ethic will be missed. As for Karel Rachunek and Kevin Weekes going to the Devils, haha. I would have thought that Lou would have realized that he already signed a European puck moving defenseman with no heart that didn't work out (Vlad Malakov) and it cost him a first round draft pick just to get rid of him. As for Weeeeeeeeekes, he did his job here but never was a true starter so good luck to him in filling the skates of Chris Terreri and Craig Billington.

And so I posted my last blog, and sent around and one of the responses I got was:
"what is he talking about that it worked with having Euro team...Did it? First round lost to the Devils and choking to Buffalo to me does not mean that it works."

Now I don't know about you, but I think this guy is an idiot. After not making the postseason for seven years, Sather builds a comfort net around Jagr and we make the playoffs two years in a row (and the second time we were essentially 7.7 seconds away from the Eastern Conference Finals). I would say that plan works and has set the team in the right direction. Look at the Blackhawks - they signed some big name, big ticket free agents after the lockout and were one of the worse teams in the NHL.

And because of the insane deals that we gave Gomez and Drury, it looks like Sean Avery is going to head to arbitration. On several message boards it was brought up for debate if it would be a big deal if we lost him after the year and some Rangers fans actually said it wouldn't be at all because of the two signings and because of the guys we have in, and are heading to, Hartford ... my response:

Man you guys are quick to turn on a guy. Need I remind everyone that we hailed Sean as a hero as his coming to the team pretty much turned around our season. And don't anyone say that we could have done it without him because that sure as hell isn't true. His drive and fire ignited a team that was headed for the golf course and turned us into a powerhouse heading into the playoffs. Yes he disappeared against the Sabres. So what? We wouldn't have even faced the Thrashers if he didn't come to the team. Jagr, Renny and company even said as much, and now you guys are willing to throw him away because we got two playmaking forwards and have some halfway decent prospects. That's just ridiculous.

Some doom and gloom ...

I am just going to mention in here that I am not so sure about the Rangers signings of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. Defenders of the deals can go on about how Gomez is younger than Nylander, has more potential and has won a Cup but the one priceless point is that Jaromir Jagr liked playing alongside Nylander. That simple. When we came out of the lockout Glen Sather got players that made Jagr happy and he played his best hockey since he left Mario's side. Now we get rid of one of the main people that he loved playing with.

I don't care if Gomez is going to turn into Adam Oates or Dale Hawerchuk or whoever, if these big ticket signings piss Jagr off, he could very well revert back to the player he was in Washington when he was unhappy and we will go right down the tubes to where we were in the late 90s. Yeah, we had Gretz and some other big ticket signings, but we had no chemistry and we went NOWHERE. Not to mention that signing Gomez and Drury to these insane contracts will certainly cause unrest among Henrik, Avery and Shanny as they have already proved their meddle in a Blueshirt and now Glen will try to lowball them to fit everyone under the cap ...

I see the doom and gloom because when we had a plan and went with it, things worked, even if I didn't agree with it. Glen was going to rebuild so we traded Leetch, the greatest American player ever. Fine. Glen wanted to build for the post-lockout NHL and do it around Jagr by signing seven Czech players, fine. Teams with North American flavour have won Cups, no team that had that many Euros, nor a Euro captain ever has. But I was willing to go with it, and it worked. Now let's blow it up by getting rid of one of the linchpins and go after the big ticket names? It doesn't seem like a plan, it seems like an attempt to grab headlines when we should be trying to grab the Cup.