Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Jagr Is The Anchor Holding The Rangers Down

There, I said it.

And what really bothers me is that the Rangers coaching staff know that as well.

I went to a Season Subscriber Fan Forum tonight where Tom Renney, Perry Pearn and Mike Pelino took to a stage and took questions from some fans as well as John Giannone and Dave Maloney. After the introductions and pleasentries, there were actually some interesting tidbits.

*First off, I think henceforth I am going to call Renney the Kind Commander as he made a half dozen references to the game being a battle, or the war. It also will make for some humour when speaking of the coaches after blunders I can call them KC and the Sunshine Band. They make everything look sunny and happy but honestly, they make some shitty music.

*They all seemed very impressed at the depth of knowledge of the fans. Of course, they shouldn't have been as Rangers fans are the most passionate and intelligent in the league. Leafs fans can think that they are, but seriously, if they knew so much, they wouldn't have allowed their team to suck so bad for so long. At least during the Rangers insanely-long drought, the team made it to the Finals three times. The Leafs haven't come as close since '67 and their idiotic fans have still made them the highest-grossing team in the league. Now that is gross!

*So some of the smart fans asked some smart questions and several of which resulted in essentially the same answer -- and thus it brought out the title of this entry. KC pointed out that the forwards skate by the crease, sometimes stop there for a second or two, but never set up camp and they need to. The skill players aren't willing to pay the price needed to get the dirty goals and no one will head to the paint. Pearn outright said that the skill players were "not playing to the level that they should." Hmm, I would say that they are calling out Jagr without saying his name.

*One guy was a typical New York fan, asking if they practice the 5-on-3 because it sure doesn't look like it. Everyone laughed hysterically and the coaches said yeah, they should do that and are going to start tomorrow. It was really a funny moment but it does bring up an interesting aside that the team should have a few open practices. Ever since they moved from Rye into the Tarrytown facility, the fans can't watch the team train. Its a shame. If there are any free dates at the Garden with the ice down, the team would do well to hold a open practice there.

*Another fan had a helluva lot more tact than I would have had and spent 10 minutes talking about a certain player in Hartford, wearing No. 10, who scored three goals on Brodeur, and was still sent down while others are still here. So basically, why the hell is Hossa on the Rangers while Dawsie is back on the buses? The short answers were because Dawes needs to be consistent. When it was pointed out by another guy that the fans aren't big on Hossa, Renney nodded but Pearn just said that the lesser of the two Slovak brothers just needs confidence. In other words, Dawes has a two way contract and Hossa doesn't.

*Pearn used to be an assistant on the Sens and compared Girardi to Wade Redden, which does really bode well for us. I really do think I will invest in a No. 5 jersey when I get the scratch together.

*Everyone seems to think that the HBO line has some offensive potential and the coaches are encouraging them to go to the net more. I really hope that pays off.

*My season ticket account exec said that I would be blogging all about this. I guess I have a reputation already, lol. Let's Go Rangers!

1 comment:

Stevens8204 said...

Basically the organization has snowballed Dawes for quite awhile now. I would love to see his agent make a ballsy move of his own and ask for a trade...there are 29 other teams that would be glad to have a hard worker like Dawes.