Zbohem Jaromir

While I disliked the man, I would be remiss not to bid farewell to Jaromir Jagr.

Jagr always did things his own way and now he is going out that way. It is sad, for sure, but it is his own fault. Had he not been a moody, petulant child when the Rangers got rid of his buddy Nylander before last season, he could have easily reached the 84 point mark that would have extended his deal with the Rangers. Instead, he sulked and was a shadow of himself. He waited until the playoffs to remind everyone that he indeed was Jaromir Jagr and that was a shame. He was a world class talent - one of the top five Europeans to ever play in the NHL - but he had a child's selfish streak that came from being treated as a phenom his entire life.

Speaking of phenoms, the Rangers drafted Alexei Cherepanov with the hope that one day he will be able to come in and replace Jagr. Now the two of them will be playing together in Siberia. We can only hope that the parting between Jagr and the Rangers was as amicable as everyone said so Jagr sells Cherry on the benefits of Broadway. This could work out fantastically for the Rangers if the former captain takes it upon himself to prepare the youngster mentally and physically for the NHL. Then again, it could be disastrous if he explains that you don't have to work as hard in the Russian league and still make a great tax-free living. That Stanley Cup thing isn't all that it is cracked up to be and the fans are quick to turn on you.

Personally I never turned on him, because I never liked him very much to begin with. I hated that when Jagr was unhappy it showed and I found the fact that the Rangers made him the captain based on his statistics was criminal. You never knew which Jagr was going to step onto the Garden ice: the future Hall of Famer or Oscar the Grouch.

Regardless, the Blueshirts will miss him because even when he wasn't putting forth maximum effort, he was a still physical force who could maintain possession of the puck. Markus Naslund certainly won't be able to keep the disc at his feet with Mike Komisarek or Hal Gill or Brendan Witt on his back. With Jagr's departure, the entire look and feel of the Rangers has now changed; let's just hope it is for the best ... for all parties involved.

No Heat Wave Can Kill Hockey

As the weather gets hotter and hotter here in New York, my longing for the frozen pond grows exponentially ... and its not even July yet. So, as my brains become scrambled in the torturous heat, I figured what better thing can I do to cool down than to write about a winter sport?

*Larry Brooks asked "are the Blueshirts better off with a combined $6M investment in Rozsival and projected third-pair defenseman (Josef) Melichar, or with a combined $6.5-7M investment in (Brooks) Orpik and, say, impending Montreal free agent Mark Streit"? I would say no, they aren't. Melichar didn't play in the U.S. this year, and didn't do so well when he did, often falling victim to a bum shoulder (more in his Wiki, which was clearly edited by a Pens fan). Rozy was a mess this year, no matter how Brooksie wants to justify it. Orpik is a hitter and Streit is a power play stud - both qualities needed by the Rangers that neither Rozy or Melichar would be able to provide. Although I think Streit and Orpik will end up costing at least a million more than Brooks estimated.

*Jaromir Jagr wants to remain a Ranger. Should he return, he had better play like it ... for the entire season. If he doesn't come back, I said it before: I think Mats Sundin would be a fantastic replacement for around the same cost.

*The Rangers have yet to give out any information about season tickets for next year or even anything about their Eurotrip to open the year. The Tampa Bay Lightning, their opponents in Prague, have had a travel package available for weeks. What could the Blueshirts box office folks be doing? The Rangers have been out since the second round, the Knicks ... hahaha and the Liberty are already well underway.

*I went through some of my archives and noticed a lot of pictures were down. Sorry about that. When I first started I would just grab Yahoo! photos without realizing they dump their archives. I'm not about to go back through all of them (sorry) but have taken some steps to avoid that going forward.

*Its kinda funny: I lament the loss of the Jets, Puck Daddy memorializes the Whalers and this week's Hockey News brings up the Nordiques (no direct link, sorry). Do you think many people will fondly remember the days of the Thrashers and the Predators as fondly?

*And I love the Hockey News. I have read it on regularly for most of my life but they have to improve their production schedule. As a subscriber, I received the June 10th issue on June 7th and it talks about the upcoming Stanley Cup Final series, while the damn parade already made its way through Detroit on the 6th. Jason Kay and the crew have done a really good job trying to make THN not as time sensitive but for things like this, they need to do better and altering the production schedule by condensing it and improving the means they print will help keep them relevant.

*For Wings fans, the Behind The Jersey blog is a must-read by a great young writer but this photo is a little bit unfortunate/perverted/leading for the poor girl, don't you think? Maybe I just have a dirty mind ...

*Pierre McGuire pointed out that the ice at the Igloo wasn't the greatest due to the heat and humidity in the building. As the NHL continues to stretch their schedule into June, don't you think they would prepare for this kind of thing by now? The ice was awful in Florida and Tampa Bay and, well, pretty much everywhere in the states during June hockey. Why wouldn't they have insisted the Pens bring in more dehumidifiers and air conditioning units?

*For everyone who is still salivating over the thought of the next Winter Classic, I just want to again voice my concerns. The Heritage Classic in Edmonton that got the outdoor thing started wasn't nearly as good as the Winter Classic but was so well received because it welcomed back some of the best players in history in an exhibition before the game. The NHL had better have one helluva gimmick up their sleeve for the next one because you just can't replicate what happened in Buffalo.

*Those Winter Classic jerseys will be back as third jerseys next year. The NHL Tournament of Logos has been having a lot of fun pitching other prospective kits so check them out.

*Speaking of jerseys, if anyone hits a garage sale this summer and sees someone selling an Islanders fishsticks jersey in XL for 10 bucks or less, let me know. I want one of those, just for laughs. Maybe I'd get it personalized "HAHAHAHA 94" or something.

*The NHL Draft is again scattered across two days, so they can put the first round in primetime the night before the second through seventh rounds. Simply said, I think its terrible. Aside from a few geeks like me (and probably you), who is going to sit home on a Friday night to watch the draft? And aside from viewership, by splitting up the draft, it kills any kinds of draft parties team might/should hold. I remember going to MSG on the day of the 1999 draft for all sorts of festivities including tours of the locker room, player appearances and bubble hockey. Of course I left early when they traded Dan Cloutier and Marc Savard and drafted Pavel Brendl and Jamie Lundmark, but the party was still a good idea.

*And no time-killing post would be good without some YouTubage so I turn it over to the Sharks fans over at We Bleed Teal for a look at the best NHL commercials.

Ok, that's it. I'm spent. Time to revel in some air conditioning.

Brian Leetch Night, Lunchtime Edition

Some random stuff before I head to the Garden:

Larry Brooks spoke to Jaromir Jagr and he said, "We can be a very good team if we play the way we're supposed to, and that includes me. Our record so far is kind of my fault, too. I take responsibility." So he is finally speaking like a captain, this is a nice change. Now it will come down to his execution in turning things around, and that starts tonight.

Sam at Rangers Report said that Marek Malik's status is unclear and he may have been traded. One can only hope, one can only hope. For all of my loathing for him, I do hope that nothing is wrong with his family because that is the kind of thing that could keep the guy away and keep Renney's mouth shut.

And John Dellapina of the Daily News put together a panel who decided Leetch was the best Ranger ever. Of course, while he claimed that they came to the decision this way: "Define the term as the player who produced the greatest body of work in a Rangers uniform and then pass the puck to a Broadway Blue-chip panel of Rangers players, GMs and historians to get their takes." And then he asked Neil Smith, Rod Gilbert, Mess, Richter, Gresch, Dave Maloney, Sal Messina and JD. So that means he asked Leetch's old GM, two teammates, two former Rangers who repeat the company line as ambassadors, Sal Messina and JD - a friend of Leetch's. Messina is the one guy in the panel who could come close to being called a historian, but where is Stan Fischler? If there is anyone who could fairly judge, it would be the curmudgeonly bearded geezer. Not one of the people he asked could make any thing close to a fair judgment call on this. That isn't to say that Leetch sucks, he was one of the best but there simply is no fair way to call this one.

And finally (for now), TSN is reporting that it is now written in stone that the Rangers will play Tampa Bay in Prague to start next season. They also will warm up in Bern, Switzerland. Looks like I am going to have to bust out my passport (and empty my bank account)!!!

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.