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.