Have to give Carp credit, he’s going down with the ship in regards to Quinn. Still trying to convince fans (and himself) that Quinn has done a good job.
Bdl
Saw some comments about Zibanejad. It’s what I have been saying about him for a few years now. He’s a I’m gonna get mine kind of player. Wins and losses are not as important as goals and assists to Zibanejad. Will not, does not, do the little things that lead to winning. will not sacrifice for the team.
Bdl
Seeing the Islanders in full collapse mode has to make you wonder if Gorton had gotten them some help at the deadline, are the Rangers in the playoffs, and does Gorton still have a job?
SN
They could have made smart moves during to both improve the roster short term to make the POs and the long term by being bold. They had plenty of assists to move, not just picks but high end prospects but he was afraid to pull the trigger.
SN
*during deadline
* assets not assists
tommyG
It’s going to be a very interesting summer for the Rangers to say the least.
tommyG
I hope they don’t extend Zibanejad. I think we now see why the Sens traded him to the rangers.
Bdl
I know I sound like a broken record, but not being in on Bennett really bothered me. Bennett was traded for a B prospect and a second rounder. The Rangers have a lot of B prospects. Could have easily doubled, or tripled up on them to get Bennett. Skinner, Hendreksson, and Pujaniemi to name a few. Bennett could have helped this year, and been part of the team long term.
Jpp2.0
Agreed BDL.
Talk is we had a deal with them for ADA after ADA was waived, but tony continued to make burner accounts on social media after being waived and he was making comments about a bunch of different ethnicities: Asians, Jews. And people took screen shots of the indentifying evidence and sent them to other NHL clubs and when the clubs found out about it, ADA was off limits. Word for word
Only guy willing to touch him this season is the GM most likely to lose their job in the summer. Burgervan I mean beregein
But the decision too simply be like oh if you don’t want to do the deal for ADA, then there’s no deal to be made, I think definitely cost gorton.
Look skinny-skinny a ton of us were warning that the rangers were not built or set up to succeed in this division and if they wanted this to be a real growth year with potential to sneak into the playoffs, they quickly had to fill the edges of their roster with some beef.
And they didn’t, and honestly I think it’s the difference between the rangers playing on and the last 6 games having been meaningful.
They didn’t not make the playoffs bc we aren’t good enough or all the drama. We didn’t make the playoffs because of the way we play the game or how we couldn’t play the game.
Trotz doing what he is doing on LI while Gorts and company had already decided they didn’t want to co-exist with an experienced set in the ways coach like Trotz. They wanted a guy who they could set the personnsel and deployments with and serve as supervisor
Jpp2.0
Meaningless*
bobbyo2019
Zibanajad has loads of talent but just not the right fit for this current team based on their lack of strength down the middle. By the way thats not his fault. If they can get a Danault to be a match up center then he’s a much better fit and can thrive. More problematic is his next contract. He just turned 28 and is gonna want a raise. Whats the cost and term? It has to be reasonable or they have to try and move him.
Jpp2.0
As time went on and I saw the way Gorton approached things.
One of my greatest concerns was that gorton made line up decisions/deployment decisions, roster decisions, based on trying to build up the value of guys who weren’t in the long term plans to get a better return for them than playing the guys that are in the plans in those roles.
I think Gorton tried to win every single move by a mile, I think he kept guys longer then he should have and played them above where they should be played to either be showcased or hoping they catch the eye of an expansion GM and becomes their picks.
I felt a lot of the time, gorton wasn’t setting the lineup up for the best chance to win or to put our most important developing players in the right positions, but to further the angle or agenda of all irons he had in the fire behind the scenes.
If I had to articulate on what I think Gorton’s fatal flaw was. Too patient, too simulation, willing to field weaker rosters in order to showcase or attempt to improve the value of certain guys. And too damn Hands off and not personal with his guys
BDL, it goes beyond Bennett. There were options to balance out this roster in the offseason and knowing their center ice situation they could have been in on PLD if they wanted to be.
I think in the end maybe Gorton didn’t have the guts to move assets or spend money because he was afraid of it backfiring.
As for Zibanejad, you have to wonder if he’s now the odd man out. While I understand the numbers are good in terms of production, I’m curious to see if Drury (who was a center and a damn good one) can see through the fluff and realize this isn’t the kind of guy you win a championship with as your number 1.
I was thinking about Trotz while trying to make sense of this Dolan thing. In all likelihood it took a lot of convincing to get Dolan to be okay with the idea of a rebuild. Don’t kid yourself though, he’s well aware of the fact that the Isles chose a veteran coach and have been flourishing since. To see them making the playoffs consistently and taking apart the Rangers over and over again could not have sat well.
Part of me wonders if the Tampa model was something he was aware of too. Skill heavy sack of marshmallow that needed to re-tool some things and get heavier and tougher in order to finally win a Cup in the Stamkos era.
Really, I just can’t decide what broke the camel’s back here. Was it really that he grew tired of Gorton’s approach? Or was he pissed off that the Rangers get pushed around and it cost them the playoffs? I guess the two go hand in hand but I don’t really believe that this didn’t have anything to do with the Wilson incident and the two ugly losses to an Islanders team that’s a lot tougher than the Rangers even while in a downward spiral.
Jpp2.0
Great point about what Tampa had to do to finally win James.
Gorts was probably selling the Tampa model and their roster as a blueprint for the rebuild and your right they had to bring in a different element before they won
TYM
I am thinking that Zibenajad is the guy to go now as well. Maybe they make a deal with Seattle. If that stuff about DeAngelo is true, I imagine he will be headed for the KHL. If that stuff exists, someone will leak it when an NHL club signs him.
JPP I think Folingo would be a good fit if the contract makes sense. But I think it depends on what they decided in regards to Buchnevich and Gauthier.
CCCP
LeBrun: Behind the scenes of the shocking Rangers shakeup and how it came to this
By Pierre LeBrun May 6, 2021 177
The Letter is just over three years old. You know, the one in which the New York Rangers announced a full-blown rebuild.
Which is the part that rankles some rival team executives around the league in seeing those shocking firings Wednesday.
“Rebuilds take more than three years. Come on,’’ said one team executive in absorbing the Rangers firings of GM Jeff Gorton and president John Davidson.
Which is why when the news hit Wednesday it was hard to believe at first that it wasn’t linked at least partially to the harsh Tom Wilson statement the Rangers put out the day before.
Everyone I talked to in other NHL front offices believed it was linked in some way. The popular theory was that Rangers owner James Dolan stood firmly behind the swat at the Department of Player Safety but Davidson and Gorton did not, though no one connected to it could actually confirm that to me. Although I do believe it to be accurate that neither Davidson nor Gorton were aware the statement was coming.
But does it have anything to do with the firings?
That’s simply not the word in and around the Rangers organization.
There, the sense is that Dolan very simply had started to lose faith in the direction of his hockey team well before this week. Well before Wilson came storming into Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
And so it would appear that it was building toward this moment. That Dolan no longer shared the vision of Davidson and Gorton for this rebuild. That he didn’t see a path in which they could get this rebuild over the hump and acquire the other necessary pieces to become a Stanley Cup contender.
Still, when I saw the tweet from Hockey Hall of Fame writer Larry Brooks on Wednesday, my jaw dropped.
I mean, at the end of the day, even if puzzling, it is Dolan’s prerogative if he chooses to change course with the people running his team.
One thing I also wonder about — where is Glen Sather in all this? The Hockey Hall of Fame executive stepped down as Rangers president two years ago and it sounded like semi-retirement and golf was in the offing.
Except he retained a title: Senior advisor to the owner and alternate governor for the Rangers.
So, still kind of kicking around the Rangers in some way.
Sather had Dolan’s ear when he was president of the Rangers. That much was evident.
I find it hard to believe Dolan would not have sought out Sather’s advice before going ahead with these firings. It would literally be Sather’s job to offer counsel here. What that counsel was? I can’t know for sure.
When the dust cleared Wednesday, Chris Drury had been elevated from associate GM to president and GM.
I empathize with Drury because this is one hell of a way to get the big jobs(s). No question he would feel for Gorton and Davidson whom he worked closely with the last few years.
And while some people around the league question Drury getting the presidency as well, there’s no denying he’s worked his way up and earned this chance as GM and everyone will agree with that.
Perhaps we should have read more into Drury’s decision not to talk to Pittsburgh earlier this season when the Penguins were so eager to make him part of their GM interview process. No way the Rangers would have made him any promises at the time, I don’t think, but perhaps deep down Drury knew if he stayed patient his time would eventually come in New York.
Can’t imagine Drury thought that would be on May 5, 2021.
As for Gorton and Davidson, they will re-surface in some form. Sources say Gorton has two more years left on his contract after this season. Davidson has three more years on his. So money is not a concern. Do ESPN or Turner come calling for JD? Or does he wait patiently for another president job to open up? He will have options, either way. And an NHL front office will come calling for Gorton way before his Rangers contract runs out. He’s well thought of around the league.
There are no short-cuts to a Stanley Cup. Drury now must take the solid foundation Gorton handed him and find the path.
Nobody inside or outside the Rangers organization can know 100 percent if Drury will pull it off.
I wouldn’t bet against him, there’s got to be a reason so many NHL teams wanted to talk to Drury the last few years.
But I would also have handled the transition of power in New York in a much different manner. It wasn’t pretty.
bobbyo2019
Does it matter if the that stuff about DeAngelo is true? It just has to be put out there and it becomes accepted. Twitter is a cesspool
Bdl
It’s never pretty.
Bdl
It was all of those things James, plus the Knicks starting to win.
TYM
James—I think it was all those things, and add to them the many times they hit the ice and were not ready to compete. It became a pattern with them this year. You know Dolan……the guy who succeeded in preventing the Jets from having a stadium in Manhattan, will now have a competitive building at Belmont that hosts a team who rag dolled his club repeatedly this year.
Am I reading this right? Kevin Rooney leads the NHL in fighting majors?
St Pete Eli
The Rangers do not need thugs to be tougher to play against, they do need to do what the bolts did. Gorton had plenty of opportunities to do this. Unfortunately cold feet prevailed, and cost him his job. I have no doubt Quinn must go they need a coach who can instill some pride and the will to win. It is obvious to me the Rangers have neither!
Bdl
This started opening night. They were not ready to play, and were destroyed. Every “big game” they played in this year, they were not ready for.
You’re probably right, TYM. I just hope Drury is cautious in his approach. If he can’t bring success it’ll be another 30 years before they even attempt another rebuild.
BDL
I feel like that’s been going on for a few seasons now. Including pre-Quinn
Wicky
I don’t know who edited that piece cccp copied and pasted but they should be fired because the used “bold text” on the wrong paragraph lol.
bobbyo2019
The question is does Drury think Quinn deserves more rope with a roster he is more comfortable with or does the fact that his team failed to show up numerous times this season is on him. Dolan interview sounded like they were gonna move on
Wicky
The last two trade deadlines were very costly for Gorton
bobbyo2019
Zibanajad has a full no move…he’s not gonna go to Seattle …..only could possibly work with a playoff team with cap room …and/or if Kreider goes with him
Jpp2.0
2011-2012 NY Rangers were the peak.
Give that team this amount of skill infused in and they are a dynasty.
Make no mistake. We’ve never been a better TEAM than 11-12
93-94
11-12
Most loaded team was 14-15 but injuries and 0 goals in games 5 and 7
tomk19
The narrative is that Dolan was impatient and Gorton and JD were doing great, but rebuilds take more than 3 years.
We know Dolan is who he is. And JD and Gorton are smart and good guys.
With all that said, it’s patronizing as hell for writers and others to dismiss the idea that Gorton and JD couldn’t have constructed a more balanced lineup. There’s no reason to rush the kids if you have better, AND grittier pieces there. I realize that some people get angry about vets blocking the kids. Whether they’re placeholders or long term vets, there should have been more there. The hole at center falls squarely on Gorton and to a lesser extent on JD.
It’s a shame that JD is gone and even worse that they may have burned a bridge there. I’m too young to remember Yogi Berra getting fired, but it reminds me of that in some ways.
SN
BDL was right on the money with the Bread thrashing being the straw the broke the camels back. Dolan was pissed off to begin with and that sent him over the edge. He might be sniveling trust fund no music talent coke head, but even he knew that is not the way to field a team.
Gorton got soft; thought he was on the new wave of the NHL speed game as evidenced by his draft picks and contract signings. Not only did he not balance the roster, but he completely mismanaged the yutes deployment with Andersson, Chytil, Howden, Hayek, etc who all should have never seen the ice until this year, if then. He could have gone retro Torts and built a possession focused bottom 6 with a skill heavy top 6; pretty much a formula for success being done on the island but either he felt compelled to show Dolan his new shiny toys or miscalculated on where the game is now.
The backline decisions starting in early 2017 with trading Graves for a bag of pucks, and bringing Smitty in and then extending him for 4 years when nobody else wanted him. Trading for Tony D, having Pionk in the minors and then signing Sharty for ‘a discount’ only to watch him come up lame in more ways than one. Signing post-injury Staal to a 3rd deal was another horrible decision.
Good riddance.
Wicky
I’m not trying to fuel any anti-Meeka flames with this.
There was an interesting thing out about Zibanejad the other day, maybe this has been out there for a long time and I never noticed it before or maybe it just surfaced.
Apparently the sens were really unhappy with Meeka. It was reported that the team questioned his overall dedication to hockey vs his DJ entrepreneurship. On numerous occasions the two aspects of his life had crossed paths after the sens had drafted him and hockey seemed to take the back seat each time.
The sens were beyond tired of this and quietly made it known he was available.
Wicky
That was paraphrased
Wicky
Tom
Lol
Wicky
Ok, before several of you just let what cccp is doing get you all in a ridiculous lather, think logically
How many not so good or floundering eternally clubs have kept one GM for 5, 6, or 7 years?
SN
The funny thing is Gorton caused the need for a rebuild and then wanted 5-6 years to see it happen.
If the Cup paraded down Broadway in 2014, he gets some more latitude..but it didn’t.
SN
Did anyone catch Carp mentioning Howden in the list of players the team is missing which left if shorthanded against the Bs last night.
Spit out my cereal when I read that.
Old Ranger Fan
Tampa went through a few coaches and got the talent laden group to the finals before retooling. Comparing the Rangers to that group is still a reach at this point. Let’s wait at least until they win a playoff series. A true team is greater than the sum of its parts. At this point the Rangers are actually the opposite. We may all despise Dolan but there is a problem with the team and this change may have been less destructive than blowing up the whole roster in exchange for over the hill knuckle draggers. The situation was in need of some disruption. Let’s see what Drury has. So far being excellent at office politics and signing Jimmy Vesey is all I know about him as an executive.
Wicky
Re Tampa, no one is shocked that it was not yzerman that made the deals that actually got them a cup.
SN
Drury was also instrumental with bringing DQ to the party…
He also oversaw the upgrading of Hartford, due as much to restocking the farm talent pond as getting the organization working at some mean level of effectiveness.
SN
My take is Slatapus recommended Capt Clutch because he knew anyone outside of the organization coming in as President would work full time to dilute Slats’ influence on Dolan as that situation is untenable for any NHL Exec worth his name.
But Slats is retired they said…sometimes the smoke gets in your eyes…
Wicky
I’ve got no issues with what Dolan did with who he fired and could literally care less about him in general.
Someone brought up Dolan and his lack of involvement here last week I think but for this team to get to where it needs to go maybe he should get involved.
Wicky
I think an 80 year old slats is pissed because he’s tired of the ice fishing hut and just wants to be left alone to spend time with the trout in B.C.
SN
So Sather must be the only 70+ yo Canadien not in FLA during the winter?
Maybe it’s just cut and dry. Gorton was going to sign Mika long term and take another year for the Chytil and Blackwell antics to go on while bringing in some more discount rack guys and letting them see how the younger players progress. The last year he preached patience and wouldn’t get involved in trade scenarios often over valuing his own guys and his inability to bring in legitimate free agent help was supposed to be excused by the dead cap issue that he himself created.
Carp insinuated that the plan was to make some moves this offseason but Gorton had already said that the object was to make the post season this year and that they needed to be tougher to play against after the bubble. Neither of those things happened.
I think Gorton would have re-signed Zibanejad or brought in Eichel. I think they would have held onto Smith or found another re-tread type dman for a year and then it would have been more Blackwell tier UFA moves to try to plug holes and determine where Chytil and Kakko and Howden fit going forward.
Didn’t Sather sign Staal and Girardi to their extensions?
SN
James – correct, maybe Gorts thought it was a throw away year with COVID and kids and Meeka asleep for 2 months and Bread being a virtual hostage, blah, blah, blah..
JD is one who came out strong after the Bubble popped and said they needed to get tougher to play against and then signed Blackwell and put 4th year Flip at 3C for the entire season when he was healthy enough to play…
Words and deeds…words and deeds
bobbyo2019
Believe Drury will generally follow Gorton’s plans with some tweaks for some more muscle in bottom 6. Decision on Mika/Strome/Buch still applies
Beezle
Had a busy few days so sorry if its been said –
Dolan is a joke. With the LB piece from last night its his third or fourth version of why he did what he did when he did it. Sorry, its all BS. He was hot about the reception to his PR critique of the NHL and that JD and Gorton wanted no part of it. His statement that they had enough talent now to win a cup is farcical regardless of how much ‘tough’ they might have added over the summer or at deadline.
There were less than four calendar days left in the season when he made his move. It was not a mid-season change to save a team expected to be a contender. This is not the way you move on/change direction in a professional organization.
tomk19
Wick-i agree that Dolan should be putting pressure on management to produce, show progress, get grittier or even targeting a certain kind of player. I don’t want Dolan picking the coach or telling Drury we have to trade for a specific player. Suggestions are fine, but let Drury do his job.
cooscoos
What’s Carp implying?
cooscoos
And ‘Dolan’s favorite paper?’ What’s that snarky snark mean, specifically?
tommyG
Drury needs to finish the job and get rid of Clarke and his cronies and get new blood into the direction of player personnel and development.
cooscoos
Oh, and Mantha got just what he asked for. He stalked Buch all over the ice attempting to pounce, then GOT pounced. No sympathy here.
bobbyo2019
Not sure you can ice Clarke and team until after draft ..probably too much work /planning already done and its sensitive info
cooscoos
Either Drury has merrily gone along with the JD/Gorton debacle or he disloyally whispers in Dolan’s ear. Either way, he doesn’t come off as a hero to me despite all the puff from SalmonJoe, hockey writers, et al.
Wicky
I think if we want to look at the causation for these moves I think it’s being done with too narrow of a scope.
It was in the wind prior to the Wilson incident, someone posted on the blog on may 3rd that if Dolan decides to intervene, Gorton is in trouble because he’s done a crap job AND Dolan made it known in 2019 the organization needed playoff progress. It’s safe to say jd didn’t want to can Gorton so he went to. Jd clearly seemed fine with the casual approach, why wouldn’t he, it wasn’t his money spent on the roster.
Wicky
It also makes zero difference practically speaking, if Dolan cans them with 3 games left or after the last game.
Are the optics good, nope. But the optics were looking bad for a while and the Trouba incident (credit to peanut and another poster on the Trouba injury game thread talking about the owner and $$$$ assets), then the Wilson incident, then the crybaby letter…the optics were already very bad.
The blame for those already bad optics should be shared by a trio of people Gorton and jd (the on ice stuff) and Dolan (the letter).
Jeff
Is it just me or the more we see of Miller on d-fense the more I hope we can move him?
SN
Adding to Dolan’s frame of mind is a year long pandemic which crushed the live entertainment industry, a place where all of his assets preside or related media assets.
Wicky
SN
Re your 10:18
No one gets latitude of 5 or 6 years to “not win” aka not be in the playoffs with some owner’s $$$$.
No one answered my 10:07 I’m guessing because there isn’t a guy. These floundering teams don’t have the same gm because owners don’t like wasting there money with no progress, Dolan isn’t any different.
Bob McKenzie said it best a couple of years ago, the 5+ year rebuild is over, owners don’t have the fiscal tolerance to do them, it’s just like society…they want it/everything now. GMs have to do it and win if they want to keep their jobs.
St Pete Eli
I think just like Larry the poacher Dolan also reads RR2. He took our advice and canned Gorton, Quimby is close behind. Unfortunately he ran into a wall with JD and his ego got the best of him! Analysis from the Minx?
Jpp2.0
I could see JD and gorts especially JD telling drury,
‘This team is bigger than us. It’s bigger than Dolan. People live and breath for this. We’re rich, we go home and our lives will be just fine. We’re not the ones who could lose big here. It’s the fans. This is the business we’re in. Take the job, finish what we started. You worked your way up, your deserving of this job regardless of how it got presented to you’
Jpp2.0
Coos,
Maybe carp’s alluding brooks and the post are Dolan favorite paper and maybe it’s telling you, Brooks has been dolans mouthpiece, you wondered where or why Brooks was writing certain articles, maybe Brooks went to Dolan after slats left bc Gorts wouldn’t communicate with him
Wicky
Jpp
That’s an interesting take.
I could also very easily see a higher up saying these fans deserve a winner. Not a franchise that is not made up the way it should be. Not a franchise that shows no progress. It’s been a hard couple of years for the world, they deserve to have a team that competes like it’s the playoffs and gets to the playoffs. Not a team that sees its star players abused and bullied on the ice with no sense of urgency by parts of the organization to correct this.
cooscoos
Dolan’s losing $. Pandemic. Add to that no playoffs or roast beef sandwich sales for years. Amazing that heads didn’t roll long before this.
The fact that Pajuniemi, and Henriksson signed their ELCs also makes me think that they would have been the next guys to come up for a look next year instead of getting actual NHL veteran help.
More undersized skill and skating. That would have just been wonderful.
cooscoos
JD and Gorts to Drury, “We’re rich. We go home and our lives are just fine…” Uh, I’ve read off-the-wall rampant speculation before but this one takes the cake.
Wick- the thing that bugs me most is that the media sells it as they’re making progress because of individual success.
They’ve played sub-500 hockey all year and lost games they had no business losing but all you hear about is Zibanejad’s goal and Fox’s amazing pass and Panarin’s point totals. No one ever wants to mention what it amounts to.
I’d rather those guys have less individual accomplishments for the casual fan to gush about and the team be successful.
Right now this isn’t a team it’s a stock pile of the organization’s most NHL ready draft picks and prospects with a couple of veterans mixed in. That has to change first and foremost.
Wicky
James
You sir are 100% correct.
cooscoos
Cheeerball Sam actually criticized a ref this year. No criticism for a Ranger player yet, but it’s a start after 40 years. Senility setting in.
Jpp2.0
Friedman: a lot of people are questioning whether this is over. Like what if the rangers load up in the off-season and get 2 deterrents, what happens when these teams play.
You better believe this ain’t over. What’s over? This is our division, it’s never over. The division had its fun trying to pick on the rangers this season. That doesn’t get forgotten about. We load up, and we’ll give these teams some guys their own size to pick on.
‘Formal Introductions’ will be in order
Jpp2.0
Good,
Speculative if you didn’t hear JD talk during the pandemic and mention how great a position they are in and how wel they got it and how it’s the everyday people he really thinks about and send his best wishes too.
But yeah. I get it
cooscoos
Talent aside, Gortie put together a namby-pamby team with a failing Smith as a wing, a Dman, and a middleweight enforcer.
Jpp2.0
Wicky
I gotta say. You saw and articulated it really early on and it’s kinda proved to his MO.
You said gorton hedged on all his decisions.
He just didn’t do anything unless it was a slam dunk and I’m of the mind now, he wanted speed and skill, he didn’t really care for the factors messier brought up
I think the 2 things cost him his job
Wicky
Jpp
Not disputing what you are saying, just pointing out that not only did that clearly not work for jd and his employment but I don’t by any stretch believe that the majority of fans are pleased or happy with the team’s situation.
Some are, some don’t care and just want to complain regardless of their spot in the standings, and some aren’t.
Wicky
Jpp
I just wanted Gorton to do it right. He didn’t and it was pretty obvious he couldn’t decide to completely do a rebuild or win and ended up doing this “on the fly” thing and did neither.
He didn’t do a total rebuild and he didn’t win.
I believe what compounded things worse from a fan perspective is many “heard” the word rebuild and just assumed it was some thing that was supposed to look a certain way and never wanted to ask the question to themselves “if the team is doing this, why did they just do that?”. I think there was a lot of can’t see the forest for the trees for many fans added to the desire to just drink up local msg and beat press PR instead of looking at the league trends and international reports and assessments.
Wicky
The worst part of all is you look at every cup winning team for quite some time back and they either have one of two things….
Size and grit through the lineup with maybe 1 purely offencive d man or first line stars that play like 4th line grinders.
Jpp2.0
Gorts wouldn’t make a move (moves involving NHL assets as opposed to prospect/swaps, spooner types) unless it was a slam dunk or there was a deadline
And say what you will. JT Miller in Vancouver became a major strike against Gorts
Wicky
Lmao. Landeskog did an interview and was talking about sakic and said sakic tells them all to just shoot the puck on net, just rip it.
Landeskog said he was like joe, you could just flick your wrists and rip it on net, most guys aren’t like you we have to aim and set it up.
cooscoos
One GM makes you larger, and one GM makes you small
And the ones that Gorton gives you, don’t do anything at all…’
Jpp2.0
Give me 1st line players who play like 4th line grinders over anyone not named Gretzky, McDavid, or Panarin 😉
Fancy pants hockey guys can have their style of hockey and have their teams lose playing it
cooscoos
Ever notice that it takes ten minutes for Kakko to get off his shot?
Wicky
I think the whole shattenkirk situation didn’t help either.
Neither did deangelo, hank, not moving zucc sooner, trading for Trouba and signing panarin and wasting prime years of theirs (and Dolan $$$$) by not surrounding them with players to win now which is what those acquisitions are, not adding the past two deadlines, bad cap management.
cooscoos
Shatz wanted to come here, Trouba wanted to come here, Fox wanted to come here, Bread wanted t come here, Kakko was the wrong guy, and LaFrenchie was pure luck.
Wicky
I think 2017 was a bad year and Dolan took notice.
I think 2019 was everything but the last nail in the coffin for him but the pandemic gave him a respite.
The last trade deadline did him in.
Georgie
The Wick, contract aside, would you consider Milan Lucic a player with size and grit with value to a Cup contending team?
Jpp2.0
Here’s my gut opinion on the dynamics of the last couple years and how things got here
I now believe gorts wasn’t cut from the slats and JD school of old time western canadien hockey. Gorts priotiized speed and skill, and the skating ability to be dogged and a tough team to play against bc of the wheels and skating.
JD comes in and takes some time to get a read, but also doesn’t want to step on gorts toes.
(Slats was hoping JD would push and direct Gorts in an old school way)
JD goes about it passively, it’s his 2 cents, but he doesn’t force anything bc gorts has a plan and at the time it was panarin and Trouba and the money went there.
Same season JD’s first season, COVID. It seems hard to remember bc of everything’s that’s gone on, but JD just got here.
I think JD pushed for Schneider.
And there’s talk some of the off-season bargain options we say we would have fathered; weren’t options bc they didn’t want to sign with the rangers or their asking price from the rangers was 2x what they signed for.
So I think JD saw it, didn’t push right away, it became evident in the bubble, but trades didn’t happen cuz they weren’t available or bc gorts was bent on swindling teams, and free agents options didn’t want to come here. And the teams hands were tied. We literally weren’t able to make the moves, we know they needed to make, and I think JD did too.
But i also think not going out and finalizing a deal for a guy like Bennett who has been available to us for awhile now, and gorts just letting him go to Florida for what im sure an owner probably sees as nothing and then the production and watching his own 8m and 11.5 m dollar investments have to do the dirty work or get targeted.
Yes bc of different dynamics maybe JD knew these changes needed to happen, maybe they were coming very soon in the off-season had they not been fired.
But the fact that gorts didn’t do anything using his league minimum roster spots to address it and didn’t do anything in season to address it, coupled with some embarrassing games and situations and an emotional/impulsive owner. And here we are.
But to summarize, I think JD is a mensch, albeit probably too passive for an owner wanting to see returns on investment, and I think he had given the directive for beef up and infuse some stuff this summer. I think it was coming, I don’t know if we failed to address it this year as much as we couldn’t this year, bc we failed to address it in the past, and we didn’t do what we could in season to fix it.
Gorts got fired for performance but the timing of it was not bc of performance. The timing was the incident with Wilson and the statement and something said between Dolan and gorts revolving around that.
JD got fired for refusing to obey orders
(Thank you for taking an hour out of your day to read this 🏒🥜)
Wicky
Lol, hour out of your day…brilliant
SN
Another angle is that they sort of boxed Dolan in a corner with the letter. If Dolan hedged, they could say, he’s impatient, just like the Knicks, he doesn’t want to build a winner.
Welp, the Knicks turned around in 2 years once they got competent management and Dolan sees Gorton hiding behind the letter, building his masterpiece brick by brick, ‘only 2-3 more years of seasoning and it will be just right’ he tells Dolan. JD sleepwalks in and doesn’t change the formula.
Dolan says fugg it pumpkin face, you are out of here. Time is a wastin!
Wicky
George
It’s hard to put the contract aside, but I’d lean towards no at this point.
10 years ago, 100% yes
SN
From a financial standpoint the Playoffs are where the teams make the most money, more specifically the gate/ticket sales. The players are on paid during the season so you have your largest expense as a sunk cost and extra revenue on top of merch, local TV monies, etc etc.
No playoffs for 5 years and throw the once a century pandemic which eats away at the regular season revenue mix and you have one unhappy owner.
Wicky
SN
That’s a lot more plausible than a lot of people think.
Jpp2.0
For real.
Right now the Knicks and Rangers playing as long as they can are Dolans money makers.
But I would caution Dolan against taking what the Knicks are doing too as a barometer for this reason.
Thibs got his team playing all in, in a season where I bet you 90% of players are going through the motions.
That’s not to say he hasn’t done a masterful job or that the players haven’t played their butts off.
But let’s be real. Knicks are at an Ada vantage right now bc of how hard Thibs got them playing in comparison to a bunch of team going through the motions to get this season in the books
Pete
actually will be interesting to see what happens with Clarke as he was an early Sather hire, so Drury may need the Don’s blessing to have him removed?
Pete
definitely JPP, Dolan surely became frustrated that Knicks are playoff bound and not the Rangers. Likely means Dolan will be itching to make a splash this offseason for both knicks and rangers
I think there was leeway until the bubble. Then it was all down hill. Had they come back this year after a couple of legit additions and performed well they could have been in the post season and there wouldn’t be an issue.
The people that stand by Gorton and JD that say they did a good job aren’t wrong in one sense but like it’s been said by Wick and SN etc, you only get so long in professional sports because time is money.
If Drury builds a winner (and let’s face it he won’t because that’s how it is when you’re a Rangers fan) there will be a lot of credit given to Gorton and to an extent JD as well.
tomk19
James- The bubble was a debacle and I don’t think it’s getting the attention it deserves. They were really bad.
Jpp2.0
Interesting.
Listening to the real Kyper at noon podcast from today
Talking rangers for awhile.
At the end Kyper goes to Doug Maclean (who made it clear he’s talked to JD since): ‘give me the bottom line of what went down’
Maclean: dolan wanted to get his… he wanted to get Sather back in the right hand chair and he wants Drury to be the new voice in the manager chair.
Basically saying dolan wants to be able to ask Sather about his team instead of JD and he wants drury being the one in the managers chair who’s communicating to him instead of Gorts.
A simple, the owner got tired of communicating (or let’s go a layer deeper), owner got tired of seeing the reflection of how he is perceived by others in the way JD and Gorts couldn’t hide the fact they thought dolan should just leave them alone and didn’t like communicating with dolan. And he put his ‘comfort blanket’ back in the right seat and promoted drury has probably has much better bedside manners than gorts did.
They also said the word is Gorts is ‘hurt’ by it. He was invested here.
Old Ranger Fan
Dolan conveniently forgets the Knicks s*cked for 20 years. Gorton and JD are head and shoulders above Phil Jackson (HA!) and let’s not even mention Isaiah Thomas. And they won’t cost him anything to settle the harassments suits. But 4 years are just way too long for the Rangers to be out of the playoffs.
Brooksie spun a good tail in his article. I wonder if Dolan ever said any of that. Brooksie has been known to use poetic license. I want to see the tape.
I also wonder if Gorton who had been around here since 2007 was relying on Dolan’s hands off approach t the Rangers and didn’t take him seriously. There may have been signals they didn’t pick up on.
I was surprised to see Drury behind the bench during the DQ COVID break. The only time I saw him behind the bench was when I did one of his son’s games at Chelsea Piers a few years ago. Maybe he was there to get the pulse of the team and sensed that they were flatlining.
I assume we will know DQ’s fate by Nonday or Tuesday. Tibs’ success with the Knicks hasn’t been overlooked. He came in with a rep of not being patient and so far so good. I think they’ll want to bring in a guy who is a h@rda$$ with a win now attitude. I also wonder if the chaos will scare anyone off.
Old Ranger Fan
So Maclean thinks Dolan felt he was dissed by Gorts and JD? If you don’t stay on the right side of the guy who writes the checks -even if you think he’s a rich a$$hole-you risk being shown the door. That’s ok if you value liking what you see in the mirror when you shave in the morning, but, you need to be aware of the risk involved.
James G
I don’t understand why people are going to stress Glen Sather’s presence in all of this.
He’s been doing what he’s doing this whole time.
You’re lying to yourself or you are very naive if you think he hasn’t always been there to some extent having his point of view be known to Dolan.
JPP- To Maclean’s point, I don’t think Sather or Dolan have ever given JD the credit he deserves or viewed him the way others in the NHL do. If they did he would have been hired here years ago in some capacity instead of going out to St. Louis.
Maybe part of it is the strong personalities or lack of intimidation on JD’s part but his margin for era was probably smaller than some of us felt it would be.
Wicky
James,
Yep. Not concerned at all by sather, no reason to be!
I think instead of being angry and butt hurt about his lost yacht when he talked to Maclean about the situation, jd should have been honest.
Just tell the truth and say…hey, I asked drury to think of some changes for the minor system and implement them when I got here, but other than that I’ve been on easy street. Jeff thinks too long on deals so usually can’t get anything done so I’m not worried about him. We spew out the word rebuild every so often and have the beat writers and msg regurgitate it. Most fans don’t pay attention to what we do close enough with our illogical, all over the board moves when we do make them. They just drone along thinking losing is supposed to be ok if it’s in a process like a rebuild of some kind. My only real problem is keeping Dolan from realizing we’re just throwing his money away. Every so often he tries to call the guy that is fishing a lot, I try to block those calls but I missed one a couple days ago…so here we are!
St Pete Eli
It will be an interesting summer to say the least!
Jpp2.0
I want a lost yacht. I’ll be the president.
I’ll do my job remotely from the Bermuda Triangle. My contribution. I’ll take Dolan with me
E3
Give the C to cheadle.
St Pete Eli
C for Can?
E3
C for crap
cooscoos
Could all be as simple as, after no Playoffs again, JD not returning with alacrity a phone call from the boss. Sillier things do happen with billionaire megalomaniacs.
cooscoos
🙂
CCCP
Rumor has it, Putin reached out to Wilson and got him an Amazon gift card and a free rub and tug at any massage parlor in Brighton Beach for rag dolling Panarin.
Old Ranger Fan
I wasn’t down on Chytil as much as others here but he didn’t managed to get credited for a single hit in the last two games. This isn’t the freestyle program. It’s a contact sport. These last few games were time to engage in a little contact. I don’t want him to take on Wilson but bump someone along the boards once instead of fishing with your stick every time. Jones had two hits last night and he is about the same size as Zucc. If he is going to play that soft he better get 70 or 80 points and I just don’t see that happening.
That Buch play with the stick in the face panerin did the same thing when a player in preseason his first year tried to line him up for a big hit near the benches.
No fine
No suspension
2 minutes well earned for panerin
tomk19
Rangers fired A.V. hours after the last game of the season in 2018. We’re all waiting for the next shoe to drop,(maybe tonight?). If one of the main goals is a culture-change, replacing the GM & President without changing the coach would make zero sense.
cooscoos
‘culture change’? What does that mean?
tomk19
Coos- I think it means a more consistent compete level and not being soft.
tomk19
It’s what Bill Guerin aimed to do in Minnesota and Bill Zito wanted to do in Florida. Both have done a lot in a short period of time. Guerin changed the coach. Zito didn’t, but he had Joel Quenville in place when he got there.
Beezle
Think nobody here really knows what DQ has said in the past to either Gorton or JD or even the team leadership. That he wasn’t let go at the same time indicates to me Dolan and/or Drury had at least some reason to believe DQ was on a different page (or at least different timing to get to the same page). Three games left, out of it, you just have one of the assistants handle it if you want DQ gone too.
Beezle
BDL put lots of face off stats in his NYP piece of late last night. All interesting. However, I thought the most puzzling one was “The Rangers have not finished better than 20th in the league since 2012-13.”
Which makes me wonder… NYR made it to conf final in 2012. SCF final in 2014. Conf final again in 2015. Yet they have never been better than 20th in the league in face offs. Perhaps team face off % is the new +/-? (Yes, queue the ‘they would have won three cups if they had been better at the dot!)
TYM
We all have opinions, right? To me, this is how this went down. Dolan was at the Mausoleum for the 6-1 thrashing and was not happy. Gorton did nothing at the deadline, then the 2 non-competitive losses to the Islanders and the bitch slapping by Washington so Dolan had enough and directed JD to axe Gorton. When JD refused, he got the axe too. We are not likely to hear about this, as there are surely clauses in their pay continuance that prohibit speaking negatively about the organization. Drury would have become GM, and now he is both. JD is gone because he was loyal to his GM, a GM he did not select.
tomk19
I seem to remember DMoops and Brian Boyle being pretty good at it. Obviously, some face offs are more important than others. When the Rangers really need a face off win in a key situation, it’s an issue and has been for years.
TYM
Awaiting moderation? Have I been a bad boy?
tomk19
Beezle-I think DQ will be gone tonight. I’m thinking that Drury kept Quinn on for these last few games out of respect and their connection to B.U. I hope I’m right because I think they need a new voice and system and someone with more of a winning pedigree.
cooscoos
If they mean ‘soft’ say ‘soft’. Cowards and BS artists all.
cooscoos
15 soft Rangers: “You callin’us soft?”
“No, just culturally challenged.”
cooscoos
Players’ Association: “We reserve the right not to be called ‘soft’ even in the midst of palpable softness. This is not negotiable.:”
St Pete Eli
TYM 10:20
I agree and I already said the same thing yesterday.
TYM
JD knew they need to become more truculent and he said so. To me, the only thing that was a gap was that they did nothing before the deadline. It was pretty clear they were going to address it in the off-season, when all the dead cap $ cleared. So if you think about it, something like a deal for Sam Bennett might just have saved both of their jobs. Dolan saying they should be a playoff team to me is code for “you did not do anything to toughen us up at the deadline.”
Jpp2.0
It’s as simple as this.
Hartford is going to the playoffs and they want to keep the staff in place down there. Drury said in his press conference he was traveling to providence after the presser for a big divisional game for Hartford.
It’s as simple as having Quinn and the staff finish the year.
Quinn quote right after the game pretty much said he’s bowing out
Jpp2.0
Boomer has an interesting perspective on it. Well represented in the article I’m linking
Beezle
It’s about vital draws not %. Meeka goes 13/15 at the dot, only 2 losses are d zone draw on pk that leads to a goal and d zone loss with a minute left that leads to opposition zone time and goal. Rangers lose 2-1 in regulation.
Barron goes 4/9 on draws in a game wins a power play draw that leads to ppg and and a d zone draw with 32 seconds left with the other team having pulled their goalie that leads to an empty netter, rangers win 2-0.
Which would you prefer? It’s about vital draws not overall %.
Those years you were talking about. The team had guys that could win important draws.
CCCP
“We just have to go about our business,” Torts said then. “I had my owner up here talking about a Stanley Cup, and that’s a bunch of bull💩.”
tomk19
I don’t think Torts is the best choice to replace Quinn if he’s out, but I also don’t think he’d be the worst. Steinbrenner kept bringing Billy Martin back so despite that quote, I could see it.
Hartley-think he has one year left on his KHL team contract. Not sure if he’d be able to get out of it.
Gallant?
Tocchet?Boudreau? Babcock?
Wicky
Beezle
I know you understand it by the way, I was just pointing it’s not necessarily about the % as it is the situational success.
Same with goaltending and save percentage, it’s about the critical saves.
tomk19
If we are looking for a coach, the Rangers could be competing with Columbus, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Seattle, Carolina, (if they let Brind Amour get away which I doubt).
tomk19
. . .Detroit
tomk19
Penguins could compete for the cup, but if they get bounced early, Smilin Mike Sullivan could be gone so Pittsburgh might be another team looking for a coach.
CCCP
I do not want Babcock here. I can’t stomach his face.
CCCP
Awww… someone put an icon of poop in place of the word 💩 in Torts’ quote lol…. softies.
cregg7
3cp is james dolan of the blog …. self moderating his quarantined language
Jpp2.0
Haha oh really
How you feel about that 3cp, your the Dolan of the blog.
Well then ‘I want a raise’
Jpp2.0
It’s gonna be Torts
Dolan talks to Thibs and sees Torts
At least that’s what I’m hoping.
Success in life is being where you’d be happiest.
Rangers may be JD’s dream job, but his happiest job will probably be TV
Gorts will go somewhere he’s got autonomy and a long term deal
Quinn will go back to his college kingdom or build another.
Torts is built for this
cregg7
was a joke 3cp . you didnt have to change it. I thought it was funny.
Wicky
Is the season over?
Asking for a friend
CCCP
That’s the thing, I didn’t change it. I bet it was the Canadian moderator 😉
CCCP
Preaches toughness yet can’t handle 💩 😜
Wicky
Not in the least bit, Ilb asked us to take over for him while he was inundated at work.
I’m speculating he’d want the blog to maintain the same standard while he was busy.
I also think it would be very hypocritical for a person that is supposed to be keeping the blog “moderated”to be doing things that other non moderators are not allowed to.
😘
cregg7
But ilb did take the hypocratic oath
Wicky
Valid point cregg, although not quite the same.
cregg7
(See what I did there ?)
Wicky
I did, it was lovely!
richinhagerstownbywayofbrooklyn
Seems Eichel is back on the table.
NOOOOOOO. Bad idea….stupid idea.
tomk19
Per Arpon Basu
“Phillip Danault has a concussion, Dominique Ducharme says. He clarifies that he was trying to play through other injuries, but he got a concussion during the game.”
Wicky
Ooof
Wicky
Another one of those known pugilists like Meeka with concussion issues…oh wait, that’s not the concussion problem.
It’s the very unsafe speed of the game!
CCCP
Eh… a little fun never killed anyone.
Wicky
It sure didn’t, I’d encourage it. Probably best though to do it within the guidelines we expect everyone else to adhere to.
Just my opinion.
CCCP
Poop is not that bad of the word, anyway.
I wonder about average age of the blog? 45+? Not the youngest team around 😉
177 responses to “Rangers-0, Boston-4”
Have to give Carp credit, he’s going down with the ship in regards to Quinn. Still trying to convince fans (and himself) that Quinn has done a good job.
Saw some comments about Zibanejad. It’s what I have been saying about him for a few years now. He’s a I’m gonna get mine kind of player. Wins and losses are not as important as goals and assists to Zibanejad. Will not, does not, do the little things that lead to winning. will not sacrifice for the team.
Seeing the Islanders in full collapse mode has to make you wonder if Gorton had gotten them some help at the deadline, are the Rangers in the playoffs, and does Gorton still have a job?
They could have made smart moves during to both improve the roster short term to make the POs and the long term by being bold. They had plenty of assists to move, not just picks but high end prospects but he was afraid to pull the trigger.
*during deadline
* assets not assists
It’s going to be a very interesting summer for the Rangers to say the least.
I hope they don’t extend Zibanejad. I think we now see why the Sens traded him to the rangers.
I know I sound like a broken record, but not being in on Bennett really bothered me. Bennett was traded for a B prospect and a second rounder. The Rangers have a lot of B prospects. Could have easily doubled, or tripled up on them to get Bennett. Skinner, Hendreksson, and Pujaniemi to name a few. Bennett could have helped this year, and been part of the team long term.
Agreed BDL.
Talk is we had a deal with them for ADA after ADA was waived, but tony continued to make burner accounts on social media after being waived and he was making comments about a bunch of different ethnicities: Asians, Jews. And people took screen shots of the indentifying evidence and sent them to other NHL clubs and when the clubs found out about it, ADA was off limits. Word for word
Only guy willing to touch him this season is the GM most likely to lose their job in the summer. Burgervan I mean beregein
But the decision too simply be like oh if you don’t want to do the deal for ADA, then there’s no deal to be made, I think definitely cost gorton.
Look skinny-skinny a ton of us were warning that the rangers were not built or set up to succeed in this division and if they wanted this to be a real growth year with potential to sneak into the playoffs, they quickly had to fill the edges of their roster with some beef.
And they didn’t, and honestly I think it’s the difference between the rangers playing on and the last 6 games having been meaningful.
They didn’t not make the playoffs bc we aren’t good enough or all the drama. We didn’t make the playoffs because of the way we play the game or how we couldn’t play the game.
Trotz doing what he is doing on LI while Gorts and company had already decided they didn’t want to co-exist with an experienced set in the ways coach like Trotz. They wanted a guy who they could set the personnsel and deployments with and serve as supervisor
Meaningless*
Zibanajad has loads of talent but just not the right fit for this current team based on their lack of strength down the middle. By the way thats not his fault. If they can get a Danault to be a match up center then he’s a much better fit and can thrive. More problematic is his next contract. He just turned 28 and is gonna want a raise. Whats the cost and term? It has to be reasonable or they have to try and move him.
As time went on and I saw the way Gorton approached things.
One of my greatest concerns was that gorton made line up decisions/deployment decisions, roster decisions, based on trying to build up the value of guys who weren’t in the long term plans to get a better return for them than playing the guys that are in the plans in those roles.
I think Gorton tried to win every single move by a mile, I think he kept guys longer then he should have and played them above where they should be played to either be showcased or hoping they catch the eye of an expansion GM and becomes their picks.
I felt a lot of the time, gorton wasn’t setting the lineup up for the best chance to win or to put our most important developing players in the right positions, but to further the angle or agenda of all irons he had in the fire behind the scenes.
If I had to articulate on what I think Gorton’s fatal flaw was. Too patient, too simulation, willing to field weaker rosters in order to showcase or attempt to improve the value of certain guys. And too damn Hands off and not personal with his guys
BDL, it goes beyond Bennett. There were options to balance out this roster in the offseason and knowing their center ice situation they could have been in on PLD if they wanted to be.
I think in the end maybe Gorton didn’t have the guts to move assets or spend money because he was afraid of it backfiring.
As for Zibanejad, you have to wonder if he’s now the odd man out. While I understand the numbers are good in terms of production, I’m curious to see if Drury (who was a center and a damn good one) can see through the fluff and realize this isn’t the kind of guy you win a championship with as your number 1.
I’d love Nick Foligno on a 3year deal.
I was thinking about Trotz while trying to make sense of this Dolan thing. In all likelihood it took a lot of convincing to get Dolan to be okay with the idea of a rebuild. Don’t kid yourself though, he’s well aware of the fact that the Isles chose a veteran coach and have been flourishing since. To see them making the playoffs consistently and taking apart the Rangers over and over again could not have sat well.
Part of me wonders if the Tampa model was something he was aware of too. Skill heavy sack of marshmallow that needed to re-tool some things and get heavier and tougher in order to finally win a Cup in the Stamkos era.
Really, I just can’t decide what broke the camel’s back here. Was it really that he grew tired of Gorton’s approach? Or was he pissed off that the Rangers get pushed around and it cost them the playoffs? I guess the two go hand in hand but I don’t really believe that this didn’t have anything to do with the Wilson incident and the two ugly losses to an Islanders team that’s a lot tougher than the Rangers even while in a downward spiral.
Great point about what Tampa had to do to finally win James.
Gorts was probably selling the Tampa model and their roster as a blueprint for the rebuild and your right they had to bring in a different element before they won
I am thinking that Zibenajad is the guy to go now as well. Maybe they make a deal with Seattle. If that stuff about DeAngelo is true, I imagine he will be headed for the KHL. If that stuff exists, someone will leak it when an NHL club signs him.
JPP I think Folingo would be a good fit if the contract makes sense. But I think it depends on what they decided in regards to Buchnevich and Gauthier.
LeBrun: Behind the scenes of the shocking Rangers shakeup and how it came to this
By Pierre LeBrun May 6, 2021 177
The Letter is just over three years old. You know, the one in which the New York Rangers announced a full-blown rebuild.
Which is the part that rankles some rival team executives around the league in seeing those shocking firings Wednesday.
“Rebuilds take more than three years. Come on,’’ said one team executive in absorbing the Rangers firings of GM Jeff Gorton and president John Davidson.
Which is why when the news hit Wednesday it was hard to believe at first that it wasn’t linked at least partially to the harsh Tom Wilson statement the Rangers put out the day before.
Everyone I talked to in other NHL front offices believed it was linked in some way. The popular theory was that Rangers owner James Dolan stood firmly behind the swat at the Department of Player Safety but Davidson and Gorton did not, though no one connected to it could actually confirm that to me. Although I do believe it to be accurate that neither Davidson nor Gorton were aware the statement was coming.
But does it have anything to do with the firings?
That’s simply not the word in and around the Rangers organization.
There, the sense is that Dolan very simply had started to lose faith in the direction of his hockey team well before this week. Well before Wilson came storming into Madison Square Garden on Monday night.
And so it would appear that it was building toward this moment. That Dolan no longer shared the vision of Davidson and Gorton for this rebuild. That he didn’t see a path in which they could get this rebuild over the hump and acquire the other necessary pieces to become a Stanley Cup contender.
Still, when I saw the tweet from Hockey Hall of Fame writer Larry Brooks on Wednesday, my jaw dropped.
I mean, at the end of the day, even if puzzling, it is Dolan’s prerogative if he chooses to change course with the people running his team.
One thing I also wonder about — where is Glen Sather in all this? The Hockey Hall of Fame executive stepped down as Rangers president two years ago and it sounded like semi-retirement and golf was in the offing.
Except he retained a title: Senior advisor to the owner and alternate governor for the Rangers.
So, still kind of kicking around the Rangers in some way.
Sather had Dolan’s ear when he was president of the Rangers. That much was evident.
I find it hard to believe Dolan would not have sought out Sather’s advice before going ahead with these firings. It would literally be Sather’s job to offer counsel here. What that counsel was? I can’t know for sure.
When the dust cleared Wednesday, Chris Drury had been elevated from associate GM to president and GM.
I empathize with Drury because this is one hell of a way to get the big jobs(s). No question he would feel for Gorton and Davidson whom he worked closely with the last few years.
And while some people around the league question Drury getting the presidency as well, there’s no denying he’s worked his way up and earned this chance as GM and everyone will agree with that.
Perhaps we should have read more into Drury’s decision not to talk to Pittsburgh earlier this season when the Penguins were so eager to make him part of their GM interview process. No way the Rangers would have made him any promises at the time, I don’t think, but perhaps deep down Drury knew if he stayed patient his time would eventually come in New York.
Can’t imagine Drury thought that would be on May 5, 2021.
As for Gorton and Davidson, they will re-surface in some form. Sources say Gorton has two more years left on his contract after this season. Davidson has three more years on his. So money is not a concern. Do ESPN or Turner come calling for JD? Or does he wait patiently for another president job to open up? He will have options, either way. And an NHL front office will come calling for Gorton way before his Rangers contract runs out. He’s well thought of around the league.
There are no short-cuts to a Stanley Cup. Drury now must take the solid foundation Gorton handed him and find the path.
Nobody inside or outside the Rangers organization can know 100 percent if Drury will pull it off.
I wouldn’t bet against him, there’s got to be a reason so many NHL teams wanted to talk to Drury the last few years.
But I would also have handled the transition of power in New York in a much different manner. It wasn’t pretty.
Does it matter if the that stuff about DeAngelo is true? It just has to be put out there and it becomes accepted. Twitter is a cesspool
It’s never pretty.
It was all of those things James, plus the Knicks starting to win.
James—I think it was all those things, and add to them the many times they hit the ice and were not ready to compete. It became a pattern with them this year. You know Dolan……the guy who succeeded in preventing the Jets from having a stadium in Manhattan, will now have a competitive building at Belmont that hosts a team who rag dolled his club repeatedly this year.
Am I reading this right? Kevin Rooney leads the NHL in fighting majors?
The Rangers do not need thugs to be tougher to play against, they do need to do what the bolts did. Gorton had plenty of opportunities to do this. Unfortunately cold feet prevailed, and cost him his job. I have no doubt Quinn must go they need a coach who can instill some pride and the will to win. It is obvious to me the Rangers have neither!
This started opening night. They were not ready to play, and were destroyed. Every “big game” they played in this year, they were not ready for.
You’re probably right, TYM. I just hope Drury is cautious in his approach. If he can’t bring success it’ll be another 30 years before they even attempt another rebuild.
BDL
I feel like that’s been going on for a few seasons now. Including pre-Quinn
I don’t know who edited that piece cccp copied and pasted but they should be fired because the used “bold text” on the wrong paragraph lol.
The question is does Drury think Quinn deserves more rope with a roster he is more comfortable with or does the fact that his team failed to show up numerous times this season is on him. Dolan interview sounded like they were gonna move on
The last two trade deadlines were very costly for Gorton
Zibanajad has a full no move…he’s not gonna go to Seattle …..only could possibly work with a playoff team with cap room …and/or if Kreider goes with him
2011-2012 NY Rangers were the peak.
Give that team this amount of skill infused in and they are a dynasty.
Make no mistake. We’ve never been a better TEAM than 11-12
93-94
11-12
Most loaded team was 14-15 but injuries and 0 goals in games 5 and 7
The narrative is that Dolan was impatient and Gorton and JD were doing great, but rebuilds take more than 3 years.
We know Dolan is who he is. And JD and Gorton are smart and good guys.
With all that said, it’s patronizing as hell for writers and others to dismiss the idea that Gorton and JD couldn’t have constructed a more balanced lineup. There’s no reason to rush the kids if you have better, AND grittier pieces there. I realize that some people get angry about vets blocking the kids. Whether they’re placeholders or long term vets, there should have been more there. The hole at center falls squarely on Gorton and to a lesser extent on JD.
It’s a shame that JD is gone and even worse that they may have burned a bridge there. I’m too young to remember Yogi Berra getting fired, but it reminds me of that in some ways.
BDL was right on the money with the Bread thrashing being the straw the broke the camels back. Dolan was pissed off to begin with and that sent him over the edge. He might be sniveling trust fund no music talent coke head, but even he knew that is not the way to field a team.
Gorton got soft; thought he was on the new wave of the NHL speed game as evidenced by his draft picks and contract signings. Not only did he not balance the roster, but he completely mismanaged the yutes deployment with Andersson, Chytil, Howden, Hayek, etc who all should have never seen the ice until this year, if then. He could have gone retro Torts and built a possession focused bottom 6 with a skill heavy top 6; pretty much a formula for success being done on the island but either he felt compelled to show Dolan his new shiny toys or miscalculated on where the game is now.
The backline decisions starting in early 2017 with trading Graves for a bag of pucks, and bringing Smitty in and then extending him for 4 years when nobody else wanted him. Trading for Tony D, having Pionk in the minors and then signing Sharty for ‘a discount’ only to watch him come up lame in more ways than one. Signing post-injury Staal to a 3rd deal was another horrible decision.
Good riddance.
I’m not trying to fuel any anti-Meeka flames with this.
There was an interesting thing out about Zibanejad the other day, maybe this has been out there for a long time and I never noticed it before or maybe it just surfaced.
Apparently the sens were really unhappy with Meeka. It was reported that the team questioned his overall dedication to hockey vs his DJ entrepreneurship. On numerous occasions the two aspects of his life had crossed paths after the sens had drafted him and hockey seemed to take the back seat each time.
The sens were beyond tired of this and quietly made it known he was available.
That was paraphrased
Tom
Lol
Ok, before several of you just let what cccp is doing get you all in a ridiculous lather, think logically
How many not so good or floundering eternally clubs have kept one GM for 5, 6, or 7 years?
The funny thing is Gorton caused the need for a rebuild and then wanted 5-6 years to see it happen.
If the Cup paraded down Broadway in 2014, he gets some more latitude..but it didn’t.
Did anyone catch Carp mentioning Howden in the list of players the team is missing which left if shorthanded against the Bs last night.
Spit out my cereal when I read that.
Tampa went through a few coaches and got the talent laden group to the finals before retooling. Comparing the Rangers to that group is still a reach at this point. Let’s wait at least until they win a playoff series. A true team is greater than the sum of its parts. At this point the Rangers are actually the opposite. We may all despise Dolan but there is a problem with the team and this change may have been less destructive than blowing up the whole roster in exchange for over the hill knuckle draggers. The situation was in need of some disruption. Let’s see what Drury has. So far being excellent at office politics and signing Jimmy Vesey is all I know about him as an executive.
Re Tampa, no one is shocked that it was not yzerman that made the deals that actually got them a cup.
Drury was also instrumental with bringing DQ to the party…
He also oversaw the upgrading of Hartford, due as much to restocking the farm talent pond as getting the organization working at some mean level of effectiveness.
My take is Slatapus recommended Capt Clutch because he knew anyone outside of the organization coming in as President would work full time to dilute Slats’ influence on Dolan as that situation is untenable for any NHL Exec worth his name.
But Slats is retired they said…sometimes the smoke gets in your eyes…
I’ve got no issues with what Dolan did with who he fired and could literally care less about him in general.
Someone brought up Dolan and his lack of involvement here last week I think but for this team to get to where it needs to go maybe he should get involved.
I think an 80 year old slats is pissed because he’s tired of the ice fishing hut and just wants to be left alone to spend time with the trout in B.C.
So Sather must be the only 70+ yo Canadien not in FLA during the winter?
Maybe it’s just cut and dry. Gorton was going to sign Mika long term and take another year for the Chytil and Blackwell antics to go on while bringing in some more discount rack guys and letting them see how the younger players progress. The last year he preached patience and wouldn’t get involved in trade scenarios often over valuing his own guys and his inability to bring in legitimate free agent help was supposed to be excused by the dead cap issue that he himself created.
Carp insinuated that the plan was to make some moves this offseason but Gorton had already said that the object was to make the post season this year and that they needed to be tougher to play against after the bubble. Neither of those things happened.
I think Gorton would have re-signed Zibanejad or brought in Eichel. I think they would have held onto Smith or found another re-tread type dman for a year and then it would have been more Blackwell tier UFA moves to try to plug holes and determine where Chytil and Kakko and Howden fit going forward.
Didn’t Sather sign Staal and Girardi to their extensions?
James – correct, maybe Gorts thought it was a throw away year with COVID and kids and Meeka asleep for 2 months and Bread being a virtual hostage, blah, blah, blah..
JD is one who came out strong after the Bubble popped and said they needed to get tougher to play against and then signed Blackwell and put 4th year Flip at 3C for the entire season when he was healthy enough to play…
Words and deeds…words and deeds
Believe Drury will generally follow Gorton’s plans with some tweaks for some more muscle in bottom 6. Decision on Mika/Strome/Buch still applies
Had a busy few days so sorry if its been said –
Dolan is a joke. With the LB piece from last night its his third or fourth version of why he did what he did when he did it. Sorry, its all BS. He was hot about the reception to his PR critique of the NHL and that JD and Gorton wanted no part of it. His statement that they had enough talent now to win a cup is farcical regardless of how much ‘tough’ they might have added over the summer or at deadline.
There were less than four calendar days left in the season when he made his move. It was not a mid-season change to save a team expected to be a contender. This is not the way you move on/change direction in a professional organization.
Wick-i agree that Dolan should be putting pressure on management to produce, show progress, get grittier or even targeting a certain kind of player. I don’t want Dolan picking the coach or telling Drury we have to trade for a specific player. Suggestions are fine, but let Drury do his job.
What’s Carp implying?
And ‘Dolan’s favorite paper?’ What’s that snarky snark mean, specifically?
Drury needs to finish the job and get rid of Clarke and his cronies and get new blood into the direction of player personnel and development.
Oh, and Mantha got just what he asked for. He stalked Buch all over the ice attempting to pounce, then GOT pounced. No sympathy here.
Not sure you can ice Clarke and team until after draft ..probably too much work /planning already done and its sensitive info
Either Drury has merrily gone along with the JD/Gorton debacle or he disloyally whispers in Dolan’s ear. Either way, he doesn’t come off as a hero to me despite all the puff from SalmonJoe, hockey writers, et al.
I think if we want to look at the causation for these moves I think it’s being done with too narrow of a scope.
It was in the wind prior to the Wilson incident, someone posted on the blog on may 3rd that if Dolan decides to intervene, Gorton is in trouble because he’s done a crap job AND Dolan made it known in 2019 the organization needed playoff progress. It’s safe to say jd didn’t want to can Gorton so he went to. Jd clearly seemed fine with the casual approach, why wouldn’t he, it wasn’t his money spent on the roster.
It also makes zero difference practically speaking, if Dolan cans them with 3 games left or after the last game.
Are the optics good, nope. But the optics were looking bad for a while and the Trouba incident (credit to peanut and another poster on the Trouba injury game thread talking about the owner and $$$$ assets), then the Wilson incident, then the crybaby letter…the optics were already very bad.
The blame for those already bad optics should be shared by a trio of people Gorton and jd (the on ice stuff) and Dolan (the letter).
Is it just me or the more we see of Miller on d-fense the more I hope we can move him?
Adding to Dolan’s frame of mind is a year long pandemic which crushed the live entertainment industry, a place where all of his assets preside or related media assets.
SN
Re your 10:18
No one gets latitude of 5 or 6 years to “not win” aka not be in the playoffs with some owner’s $$$$.
No one answered my 10:07 I’m guessing because there isn’t a guy. These floundering teams don’t have the same gm because owners don’t like wasting there money with no progress, Dolan isn’t any different.
Bob McKenzie said it best a couple of years ago, the 5+ year rebuild is over, owners don’t have the fiscal tolerance to do them, it’s just like society…they want it/everything now. GMs have to do it and win if they want to keep their jobs.
I think just like Larry the poacher Dolan also reads RR2. He took our advice and canned Gorton, Quimby is close behind. Unfortunately he ran into a wall with JD and his ego got the best of him! Analysis from the Minx?
I could see JD and gorts especially JD telling drury,
‘This team is bigger than us. It’s bigger than Dolan. People live and breath for this. We’re rich, we go home and our lives will be just fine. We’re not the ones who could lose big here. It’s the fans. This is the business we’re in. Take the job, finish what we started. You worked your way up, your deserving of this job regardless of how it got presented to you’
Coos,
Maybe carp’s alluding brooks and the post are Dolan favorite paper and maybe it’s telling you, Brooks has been dolans mouthpiece, you wondered where or why Brooks was writing certain articles, maybe Brooks went to Dolan after slats left bc Gorts wouldn’t communicate with him
Jpp
That’s an interesting take.
I could also very easily see a higher up saying these fans deserve a winner. Not a franchise that is not made up the way it should be. Not a franchise that shows no progress. It’s been a hard couple of years for the world, they deserve to have a team that competes like it’s the playoffs and gets to the playoffs. Not a team that sees its star players abused and bullied on the ice with no sense of urgency by parts of the organization to correct this.
Dolan’s losing $. Pandemic. Add to that no playoffs or roast beef sandwich sales for years. Amazing that heads didn’t roll long before this.
The fact that Pajuniemi, and Henriksson signed their ELCs also makes me think that they would have been the next guys to come up for a look next year instead of getting actual NHL veteran help.
More undersized skill and skating. That would have just been wonderful.
JD and Gorts to Drury, “We’re rich. We go home and our lives are just fine…” Uh, I’ve read off-the-wall rampant speculation before but this one takes the cake.
Wick- the thing that bugs me most is that the media sells it as they’re making progress because of individual success.
They’ve played sub-500 hockey all year and lost games they had no business losing but all you hear about is Zibanejad’s goal and Fox’s amazing pass and Panarin’s point totals. No one ever wants to mention what it amounts to.
I’d rather those guys have less individual accomplishments for the casual fan to gush about and the team be successful.
Right now this isn’t a team it’s a stock pile of the organization’s most NHL ready draft picks and prospects with a couple of veterans mixed in. That has to change first and foremost.
James
You sir are 100% correct.
Cheeerball Sam actually criticized a ref this year. No criticism for a Ranger player yet, but it’s a start after 40 years. Senility setting in.
Friedman: a lot of people are questioning whether this is over. Like what if the rangers load up in the off-season and get 2 deterrents, what happens when these teams play.
You better believe this ain’t over. What’s over? This is our division, it’s never over. The division had its fun trying to pick on the rangers this season. That doesn’t get forgotten about. We load up, and we’ll give these teams some guys their own size to pick on.
‘Formal Introductions’ will be in order
Good,
Speculative if you didn’t hear JD talk during the pandemic and mention how great a position they are in and how wel they got it and how it’s the everyday people he really thinks about and send his best wishes too.
But yeah. I get it
Talent aside, Gortie put together a namby-pamby team with a failing Smith as a wing, a Dman, and a middleweight enforcer.
Wicky
I gotta say. You saw and articulated it really early on and it’s kinda proved to his MO.
You said gorton hedged on all his decisions.
He just didn’t do anything unless it was a slam dunk and I’m of the mind now, he wanted speed and skill, he didn’t really care for the factors messier brought up
I think the 2 things cost him his job
Jpp
Not disputing what you are saying, just pointing out that not only did that clearly not work for jd and his employment but I don’t by any stretch believe that the majority of fans are pleased or happy with the team’s situation.
Some are, some don’t care and just want to complain regardless of their spot in the standings, and some aren’t.
Jpp
I just wanted Gorton to do it right. He didn’t and it was pretty obvious he couldn’t decide to completely do a rebuild or win and ended up doing this “on the fly” thing and did neither.
He didn’t do a total rebuild and he didn’t win.
I believe what compounded things worse from a fan perspective is many “heard” the word rebuild and just assumed it was some thing that was supposed to look a certain way and never wanted to ask the question to themselves “if the team is doing this, why did they just do that?”. I think there was a lot of can’t see the forest for the trees for many fans added to the desire to just drink up local msg and beat press PR instead of looking at the league trends and international reports and assessments.
The worst part of all is you look at every cup winning team for quite some time back and they either have one of two things….
Size and grit through the lineup with maybe 1 purely offencive d man or first line stars that play like 4th line grinders.
Gorts wouldn’t make a move (moves involving NHL assets as opposed to prospect/swaps, spooner types) unless it was a slam dunk or there was a deadline
And say what you will. JT Miller in Vancouver became a major strike against Gorts
Lmao. Landeskog did an interview and was talking about sakic and said sakic tells them all to just shoot the puck on net, just rip it.
Landeskog said he was like joe, you could just flick your wrists and rip it on net, most guys aren’t like you we have to aim and set it up.
One GM makes you larger, and one GM makes you small
And the ones that Gorton gives you, don’t do anything at all…’
Give me 1st line players who play like 4th line grinders over anyone not named Gretzky, McDavid, or Panarin 😉
Fancy pants hockey guys can have their style of hockey and have their teams lose playing it
Ever notice that it takes ten minutes for Kakko to get off his shot?
I think the whole shattenkirk situation didn’t help either.
Neither did deangelo, hank, not moving zucc sooner, trading for Trouba and signing panarin and wasting prime years of theirs (and Dolan $$$$) by not surrounding them with players to win now which is what those acquisitions are, not adding the past two deadlines, bad cap management.
Shatz wanted to come here, Trouba wanted to come here, Fox wanted to come here, Bread wanted t come here, Kakko was the wrong guy, and LaFrenchie was pure luck.
I think 2017 was a bad year and Dolan took notice.
I think 2019 was everything but the last nail in the coffin for him but the pandemic gave him a respite.
The last trade deadline did him in.
The Wick, contract aside, would you consider Milan Lucic a player with size and grit with value to a Cup contending team?
Here’s my gut opinion on the dynamics of the last couple years and how things got here
I now believe gorts wasn’t cut from the slats and JD school of old time western canadien hockey. Gorts priotiized speed and skill, and the skating ability to be dogged and a tough team to play against bc of the wheels and skating.
JD comes in and takes some time to get a read, but also doesn’t want to step on gorts toes.
(Slats was hoping JD would push and direct Gorts in an old school way)
JD goes about it passively, it’s his 2 cents, but he doesn’t force anything bc gorts has a plan and at the time it was panarin and Trouba and the money went there.
Same season JD’s first season, COVID. It seems hard to remember bc of everything’s that’s gone on, but JD just got here.
I think JD pushed for Schneider.
And there’s talk some of the off-season bargain options we say we would have fathered; weren’t options bc they didn’t want to sign with the rangers or their asking price from the rangers was 2x what they signed for.
So I think JD saw it, didn’t push right away, it became evident in the bubble, but trades didn’t happen cuz they weren’t available or bc gorts was bent on swindling teams, and free agents options didn’t want to come here. And the teams hands were tied. We literally weren’t able to make the moves, we know they needed to make, and I think JD did too.
But i also think not going out and finalizing a deal for a guy like Bennett who has been available to us for awhile now, and gorts just letting him go to Florida for what im sure an owner probably sees as nothing and then the production and watching his own 8m and 11.5 m dollar investments have to do the dirty work or get targeted.
Yes bc of different dynamics maybe JD knew these changes needed to happen, maybe they were coming very soon in the off-season had they not been fired.
But the fact that gorts didn’t do anything using his league minimum roster spots to address it and didn’t do anything in season to address it, coupled with some embarrassing games and situations and an emotional/impulsive owner. And here we are.
But to summarize, I think JD is a mensch, albeit probably too passive for an owner wanting to see returns on investment, and I think he had given the directive for beef up and infuse some stuff this summer. I think it was coming, I don’t know if we failed to address it this year as much as we couldn’t this year, bc we failed to address it in the past, and we didn’t do what we could in season to fix it.
Gorts got fired for performance but the timing of it was not bc of performance. The timing was the incident with Wilson and the statement and something said between Dolan and gorts revolving around that.
JD got fired for refusing to obey orders
(Thank you for taking an hour out of your day to read this 🏒🥜)
Lol, hour out of your day…brilliant
Another angle is that they sort of boxed Dolan in a corner with the letter. If Dolan hedged, they could say, he’s impatient, just like the Knicks, he doesn’t want to build a winner.
Welp, the Knicks turned around in 2 years once they got competent management and Dolan sees Gorton hiding behind the letter, building his masterpiece brick by brick, ‘only 2-3 more years of seasoning and it will be just right’ he tells Dolan. JD sleepwalks in and doesn’t change the formula.
Dolan says fugg it pumpkin face, you are out of here. Time is a wastin!
George
It’s hard to put the contract aside, but I’d lean towards no at this point.
10 years ago, 100% yes
From a financial standpoint the Playoffs are where the teams make the most money, more specifically the gate/ticket sales. The players are on paid during the season so you have your largest expense as a sunk cost and extra revenue on top of merch, local TV monies, etc etc.
No playoffs for 5 years and throw the once a century pandemic which eats away at the regular season revenue mix and you have one unhappy owner.
SN
That’s a lot more plausible than a lot of people think.
For real.
Right now the Knicks and Rangers playing as long as they can are Dolans money makers.
But I would caution Dolan against taking what the Knicks are doing too as a barometer for this reason.
Thibs got his team playing all in, in a season where I bet you 90% of players are going through the motions.
That’s not to say he hasn’t done a masterful job or that the players haven’t played their butts off.
But let’s be real. Knicks are at an Ada vantage right now bc of how hard Thibs got them playing in comparison to a bunch of team going through the motions to get this season in the books
actually will be interesting to see what happens with Clarke as he was an early Sather hire, so Drury may need the Don’s blessing to have him removed?
definitely JPP, Dolan surely became frustrated that Knicks are playoff bound and not the Rangers. Likely means Dolan will be itching to make a splash this offseason for both knicks and rangers
I think there was leeway until the bubble. Then it was all down hill. Had they come back this year after a couple of legit additions and performed well they could have been in the post season and there wouldn’t be an issue.
The people that stand by Gorton and JD that say they did a good job aren’t wrong in one sense but like it’s been said by Wick and SN etc, you only get so long in professional sports because time is money.
If Drury builds a winner (and let’s face it he won’t because that’s how it is when you’re a Rangers fan) there will be a lot of credit given to Gorton and to an extent JD as well.
James- The bubble was a debacle and I don’t think it’s getting the attention it deserves. They were really bad.
Interesting.
Listening to the real Kyper at noon podcast from today
Talking rangers for awhile.
At the end Kyper goes to Doug Maclean (who made it clear he’s talked to JD since): ‘give me the bottom line of what went down’
Maclean: dolan wanted to get his… he wanted to get Sather back in the right hand chair and he wants Drury to be the new voice in the manager chair.
Basically saying dolan wants to be able to ask Sather about his team instead of JD and he wants drury being the one in the managers chair who’s communicating to him instead of Gorts.
A simple, the owner got tired of communicating (or let’s go a layer deeper), owner got tired of seeing the reflection of how he is perceived by others in the way JD and Gorts couldn’t hide the fact they thought dolan should just leave them alone and didn’t like communicating with dolan. And he put his ‘comfort blanket’ back in the right seat and promoted drury has probably has much better bedside manners than gorts did.
They also said the word is Gorts is ‘hurt’ by it. He was invested here.
Dolan conveniently forgets the Knicks s*cked for 20 years. Gorton and JD are head and shoulders above Phil Jackson (HA!) and let’s not even mention Isaiah Thomas. And they won’t cost him anything to settle the harassments suits. But 4 years are just way too long for the Rangers to be out of the playoffs.
Brooksie spun a good tail in his article. I wonder if Dolan ever said any of that. Brooksie has been known to use poetic license. I want to see the tape.
I also wonder if Gorton who had been around here since 2007 was relying on Dolan’s hands off approach t the Rangers and didn’t take him seriously. There may have been signals they didn’t pick up on.
I was surprised to see Drury behind the bench during the DQ COVID break. The only time I saw him behind the bench was when I did one of his son’s games at Chelsea Piers a few years ago. Maybe he was there to get the pulse of the team and sensed that they were flatlining.
I assume we will know DQ’s fate by Nonday or Tuesday. Tibs’ success with the Knicks hasn’t been overlooked. He came in with a rep of not being patient and so far so good. I think they’ll want to bring in a guy who is a h@rda$$ with a win now attitude. I also wonder if the chaos will scare anyone off.
So Maclean thinks Dolan felt he was dissed by Gorts and JD? If you don’t stay on the right side of the guy who writes the checks -even if you think he’s a rich a$$hole-you risk being shown the door. That’s ok if you value liking what you see in the mirror when you shave in the morning, but, you need to be aware of the risk involved.
I don’t understand why people are going to stress Glen Sather’s presence in all of this.
He’s been doing what he’s doing this whole time.
You’re lying to yourself or you are very naive if you think he hasn’t always been there to some extent having his point of view be known to Dolan.
JPP- To Maclean’s point, I don’t think Sather or Dolan have ever given JD the credit he deserves or viewed him the way others in the NHL do. If they did he would have been hired here years ago in some capacity instead of going out to St. Louis.
Maybe part of it is the strong personalities or lack of intimidation on JD’s part but his margin for era was probably smaller than some of us felt it would be.
James,
Yep. Not concerned at all by sather, no reason to be!
I think instead of being angry and butt hurt about his lost yacht when he talked to Maclean about the situation, jd should have been honest.
Just tell the truth and say…hey, I asked drury to think of some changes for the minor system and implement them when I got here, but other than that I’ve been on easy street. Jeff thinks too long on deals so usually can’t get anything done so I’m not worried about him. We spew out the word rebuild every so often and have the beat writers and msg regurgitate it. Most fans don’t pay attention to what we do close enough with our illogical, all over the board moves when we do make them. They just drone along thinking losing is supposed to be ok if it’s in a process like a rebuild of some kind. My only real problem is keeping Dolan from realizing we’re just throwing his money away. Every so often he tries to call the guy that is fishing a lot, I try to block those calls but I missed one a couple days ago…so here we are!
It will be an interesting summer to say the least!
I want a lost yacht. I’ll be the president.
I’ll do my job remotely from the Bermuda Triangle. My contribution. I’ll take Dolan with me
Give the C to cheadle.
C for Can?
C for crap
Could all be as simple as, after no Playoffs again, JD not returning with alacrity a phone call from the boss. Sillier things do happen with billionaire megalomaniacs.
🙂
Rumor has it, Putin reached out to Wilson and got him an Amazon gift card and a free rub and tug at any massage parlor in Brighton Beach for rag dolling Panarin.
I wasn’t down on Chytil as much as others here but he didn’t managed to get credited for a single hit in the last two games. This isn’t the freestyle program. It’s a contact sport. These last few games were time to engage in a little contact. I don’t want him to take on Wilson but bump someone along the boards once instead of fishing with your stick every time. Jones had two hits last night and he is about the same size as Zucc. If he is going to play that soft he better get 70 or 80 points and I just don’t see that happening.
Drury saves the franchise in 7.7 seconds!!!
https://nypost.com/2021/05/07/chris-drury-not-changing-tony-deangelos-rangers-status/
Brooks is talking about face-offs like they actually matter. About time someone called the Rangers out about it.
LOL that Drury would have the balls to address with the Press (or anyone else) the DeAngelo situation. Never happen. Not in THIS lifetime.
Since Stepan, Tom
Before
This is what a young playmaking center can do; also a lifelong ranger fan and 9th pick in draft last year
That Buch play with the stick in the face panerin did the same thing when a player in preseason his first year tried to line him up for a big hit near the benches.
No fine
No suspension
2 minutes well earned for panerin
Rangers fired A.V. hours after the last game of the season in 2018. We’re all waiting for the next shoe to drop,(maybe tonight?). If one of the main goals is a culture-change, replacing the GM & President without changing the coach would make zero sense.
‘culture change’? What does that mean?
Coos- I think it means a more consistent compete level and not being soft.
It’s what Bill Guerin aimed to do in Minnesota and Bill Zito wanted to do in Florida. Both have done a lot in a short period of time. Guerin changed the coach. Zito didn’t, but he had Joel Quenville in place when he got there.
Think nobody here really knows what DQ has said in the past to either Gorton or JD or even the team leadership. That he wasn’t let go at the same time indicates to me Dolan and/or Drury had at least some reason to believe DQ was on a different page (or at least different timing to get to the same page). Three games left, out of it, you just have one of the assistants handle it if you want DQ gone too.
BDL put lots of face off stats in his NYP piece of late last night. All interesting. However, I thought the most puzzling one was “The Rangers have not finished better than 20th in the league since 2012-13.”
Which makes me wonder… NYR made it to conf final in 2012. SCF final in 2014. Conf final again in 2015. Yet they have never been better than 20th in the league in face offs. Perhaps team face off % is the new +/-? (Yes, queue the ‘they would have won three cups if they had been better at the dot!)
We all have opinions, right? To me, this is how this went down. Dolan was at the Mausoleum for the 6-1 thrashing and was not happy. Gorton did nothing at the deadline, then the 2 non-competitive losses to the Islanders and the bitch slapping by Washington so Dolan had enough and directed JD to axe Gorton. When JD refused, he got the axe too. We are not likely to hear about this, as there are surely clauses in their pay continuance that prohibit speaking negatively about the organization. Drury would have become GM, and now he is both. JD is gone because he was loyal to his GM, a GM he did not select.
I seem to remember DMoops and Brian Boyle being pretty good at it. Obviously, some face offs are more important than others. When the Rangers really need a face off win in a key situation, it’s an issue and has been for years.
Awaiting moderation? Have I been a bad boy?
Beezle-I think DQ will be gone tonight. I’m thinking that Drury kept Quinn on for these last few games out of respect and their connection to B.U. I hope I’m right because I think they need a new voice and system and someone with more of a winning pedigree.
If they mean ‘soft’ say ‘soft’. Cowards and BS artists all.
15 soft Rangers: “You callin’us soft?”
“No, just culturally challenged.”
Players’ Association: “We reserve the right not to be called ‘soft’ even in the midst of palpable softness. This is not negotiable.:”
TYM 10:20
I agree and I already said the same thing yesterday.
JD knew they need to become more truculent and he said so. To me, the only thing that was a gap was that they did nothing before the deadline. It was pretty clear they were going to address it in the off-season, when all the dead cap $ cleared. So if you think about it, something like a deal for Sam Bennett might just have saved both of their jobs. Dolan saying they should be a playoff team to me is code for “you did not do anything to toughen us up at the deadline.”
It’s as simple as this.
Hartford is going to the playoffs and they want to keep the staff in place down there. Drury said in his press conference he was traveling to providence after the presser for a big divisional game for Hartford.
It’s as simple as having Quinn and the staff finish the year.
Quinn quote right after the game pretty much said he’s bowing out
Boomer has an interesting perspective on it. Well represented in the article I’m linking
https://www.theringer.com/2021/5/7/22425166/nhl-rangers-firings-statement-james-dolan-tom-wilson
Beezle
It’s about vital draws not %. Meeka goes 13/15 at the dot, only 2 losses are d zone draw on pk that leads to a goal and d zone loss with a minute left that leads to opposition zone time and goal. Rangers lose 2-1 in regulation.
Barron goes 4/9 on draws in a game wins a power play draw that leads to ppg and and a d zone draw with 32 seconds left with the other team having pulled their goalie that leads to an empty netter, rangers win 2-0.
Which would you prefer? It’s about vital draws not overall %.
Those years you were talking about. The team had guys that could win important draws.
“We just have to go about our business,” Torts said then. “I had my owner up here talking about a Stanley Cup, and that’s a bunch of bull💩.”
I don’t think Torts is the best choice to replace Quinn if he’s out, but I also don’t think he’d be the worst. Steinbrenner kept bringing Billy Martin back so despite that quote, I could see it.
Hartley-think he has one year left on his KHL team contract. Not sure if he’d be able to get out of it.
Gallant?
Tocchet?Boudreau? Babcock?
Beezle
I know you understand it by the way, I was just pointing it’s not necessarily about the % as it is the situational success.
Same with goaltending and save percentage, it’s about the critical saves.
If we are looking for a coach, the Rangers could be competing with Columbus, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Seattle, Carolina, (if they let Brind Amour get away which I doubt).
. . .Detroit
Penguins could compete for the cup, but if they get bounced early, Smilin Mike Sullivan could be gone so Pittsburgh might be another team looking for a coach.
I do not want Babcock here. I can’t stomach his face.
Awww… someone put an icon of poop in place of the word 💩 in Torts’ quote lol…. softies.
3cp is james dolan of the blog …. self moderating his quarantined language
Haha oh really
How you feel about that 3cp, your the Dolan of the blog.
Well then ‘I want a raise’
It’s gonna be Torts
Dolan talks to Thibs and sees Torts
At least that’s what I’m hoping.
Success in life is being where you’d be happiest.
Rangers may be JD’s dream job, but his happiest job will probably be TV
Gorts will go somewhere he’s got autonomy and a long term deal
Quinn will go back to his college kingdom or build another.
Torts is built for this
was a joke 3cp . you didnt have to change it. I thought it was funny.
Is the season over?
Asking for a friend
That’s the thing, I didn’t change it. I bet it was the Canadian moderator 😉
Preaches toughness yet can’t handle 💩 😜
Not in the least bit, Ilb asked us to take over for him while he was inundated at work.
I’m speculating he’d want the blog to maintain the same standard while he was busy.
I also think it would be very hypocritical for a person that is supposed to be keeping the blog “moderated”to be doing things that other non moderators are not allowed to.
😘
But ilb did take the hypocratic oath
Valid point cregg, although not quite the same.
(See what I did there ?)
I did, it was lovely!
Seems Eichel is back on the table.
NOOOOOOO. Bad idea….stupid idea.
Per Arpon Basu
“Phillip Danault has a concussion, Dominique Ducharme says. He clarifies that he was trying to play through other injuries, but he got a concussion during the game.”
Ooof
Another one of those known pugilists like Meeka with concussion issues…oh wait, that’s not the concussion problem.
It’s the very unsafe speed of the game!
Eh… a little fun never killed anyone.
It sure didn’t, I’d encourage it. Probably best though to do it within the guidelines we expect everyone else to adhere to.
Just my opinion.
Poop is not that bad of the word, anyway.
I wonder about average age of the blog? 45+? Not the youngest team around 😉
Ok, dad 👨
🙄
💋
Aight…
$10 says Quinn is not getting fired.
Any takers?
Matt Martin is Boomer’s son-in-law.
Does Wilson have a Mother? If so, stand up!
I like the 💩 emoji.
I mean it’s more charming than Gritty.
Walking STD molecule