Sorry for the delay in news folks, but I was up until two in the morning obsessively playing Truck Dismount so I was a bit slow dragging my ass out of bed this morning.

After Wednesday's game, I was going to write a column pretending that all of the dailies had devoted their articles today to reminding the Rangers to dump and chase. What is it about the concept of "Get the puck deep" that this team fails to grasp? When they do that, they have success. When they try to get slick through the neutral zone or across the other team's blueline, they lose. This is not a difficult formula. Anyway, the dailies were all on the same topic today but that topic was Eric Lindros' concussion. And most of the articles contained interesting tidbits so you get your news straight up today.

Before we get to the dailies though, how about some original content? Rodent and Coat team up to bring us a translation of an interesting Czech interview with Jagr. Is Coat correct in thinking that Lang is Broadway bound? Stay tuned. Not that it matters as Rodent's second column pretty much spells things out for us -- barring a miracle, the Rangers will not make the playoffs this season. He's done the math and it doesn't look good.

Speaking of doing the math, and totally unrelated to anything having to do with the Rangers, it occured to me on my way into work that John Edwards will be the surprise winner of the Democratic nomination. I did the math on this.

Back to Rangers related news, I fear for poor Leedy's sanity. His latest fantasy column got lost in the shuffle last Tuesday. This column was written between the Florida and Washington games and Brian's had to do yet another reversal on his opinion of the team. Now he's excited about them again! This week's column should be interesting ;)

Newsday has three concussion related articles this morning. The first is from a guy whose name I am not making up. Mr Heyman speaks with Pat LaFontaine and Al Toon on the subject of when to retire.

I want to quote at length from this article which had some interesting notes on concussions. They may give us reason to be optomistic:

The number of concussions is surprisingly down the list of "red flags" on the well-known grading scale of Dr. Robert Cantu, perhaps the nation's foremost concussion authority. But it is there.

So it's a bad sign Lindros suffered his seventh concussion two years ago after a shoulder-to-shoulder collision. Wednesday's blow wasn't a straight-on hit to the head, either. But LaFontaine said, "That was a pretty strong hit." In the world of heads, a concussion from a strong hit is better than one from a weak one.

For more on grading concussions check this link which discusses Cantu's grading system and two others that are highly regarded.

Arthur Staple's first article today reassures us that Lindros is in good hands with Karen Johnston, an independant expert on concussions who finds she spends a lot of time educating GMs and Coaches.

I'm sure Lindros was not speaking from personal experience when he made this comment last year: "She's independent, and that weighs heavily in one's mind. There's a large comfort factor in that. Not to say that organizations don't want to do what's best for players."

I have to say that the Rangers seem to have been pretty good on this front, not pressuring players under these circumstances. But we know what happened to Eric in Philly and then there's the current Scott Stephens situation. Now, I am not the world's biggest Stephens fan, <--(understatement), and some might say that there is a certain poetic justice in the fact that he's currently wrestling with post concussion syndrome, but I have to side with him on this one:

Even so, Devils president Lou Lamoriello is not convinced Stevens has post-concussion syndrome. "The only thing we can think of is that maybe he got a hit to the head," Lamoriello said Jan. 15. "But he is not suffering from post- concussion symptoms."

Hey Lou -- F**k you.

Here is another article that Arthur Staple started writing before he grew bored. It's an incomplete look at some random concussions in Rangers history.

The New York Times has some thoughts from Richter on Eric's situation and more opinions from experts.

Larry Brook's article in today's Post covers the same subject matter but has a gem of a quote from Simon. Thought the Rangers reluctantly acknowledge that the hit was clean, that doesn't mean they're not still pissed about it. As Simon says, "I could say we're not going to do anything, but that would be a lie. I don't know if [Doig] was trying to hurt Eric, but that's what happened, and I don't think we have to accept it and just let it go." Our next three games against the Capitals should be interesting.

I think we can all agree with Larry when he says the following:

Lindros clearly has been the Rangers' best player over the last four-to-six weeks. But though Glen Sather has said so, he hasn't used Lindros as if he's the team's best center, let alone best player. Over the 14 games immediately preceding Wednesday's, he received less ice time than Petr Nedved in 13 of them, less than Mark Messier in five.

And bear in mind that Lindros is the sort of player who can be double shifted to good effect so it's not like this is an endurance issue. A final note from the post for those of you who don't read the boards:

The Blueshirts yesterday lost Pascal Rheaume to the Blues on waivers while recalling wingers Garth Murray and Paul Healey from Hartford.

Dellapina has a depressing stat for us in today's Daily News. In a desperate fight for a playoff berth, the Rangers don't have the luxury of waiting for Lindros to return to form. The Blueshirts are 10th in the Eastern Conference and have won just once in their last eight games.

Also, we have some moving quotes from Holik in Dellapina's article. For those who like to ponder the lockerroom dynamics, here are some pieces to plug into your mental puzzle:

"I'll tell you how I feel," said Bobby Holik, who normally accepts nothing other than unflinching attention to business. "Because I've gotten to know Eric the last year and a half and I've learned how great of a guy he is and how great of a teammate he is, I hate seeing the human being getting hurt like that - because of his history.

"It's not necessarily him as a player or for the future or what he's going to do for the team. I got the morning paper and saw the picture and told my wife: 'A year and a half ago, I wouldn't have looked at it the same way.' I look at it as a friend, not as a teammate or what he's going to do for the team. That's not as important in this situation."

The Star Ledger also covers the same topic but this article is notable for some interesting notes on concussions and the NHL courtesy of Dr. Karen Johnston.

And, on another non-Ranger related note, the Times has an article today on Heatley's return.

Next up is Florida. No, not for the Rangers, they've got Buffalo tonight. Florida is next up for me so I'll be away from the computer all next week. Take notes for me please.

-- Rightbug

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