Hockeybird.com: A Small Book

An enormous amount of articles to choose from today in the dailies (21!!) and since I'm a bit busy this morning and also said pretty much everything I wanted to say on the whole Richter/State of the Rangers thing yesterday, I'm just going to list the articles all plain and boring-like. If you were bored at work, these should keep you busy nearly until quitting time.

NY Times: After the game, Glen Sather, the Rangers' coach, confirmed that he planned to speak to either Phoenix General Manager Mike Barnett or that team's managing partner, Wayne Gretzky. The subject was sure to be goaltender Sean Burke, who was held out of his scheduled start against Florida in Phoenix last night.
NY Times #2: ESPN Radio announced yesterday that it would carry Knicks and Rangers games for three years starting next season, replacing WFAN, their longtime home.

NY Post, Brooks: It was a time of past perfect tense for the Rangers.
NY Post, Brooks #2: There could not have been a more symbolically inappropriate night for Mike Dunham to have come up so small.
NY Post, Brooks #3: Sometime in the future, after Glen Sather has left and the executives running the Rangers have a better understanding of what Adam Graves means not only to Rangers history but to the people of New York, No. 9 will have a night just like the one given to Mike Richter last night.
NY Post, Greenberg: Before sarcastically calling for him in the third period, the fans made it 1994 again, grateful for how strongly Richter stood in there for them, joining him in the understanding of how 14 years, even the long ones at the end, passed by too quickly.

NY Daily News, Dellapina: He played New York's hockey hall for a decade and a half. It wasn't long enough. They set aside 45 minutes last night to honor him. That wasn't nearly long enough. But if justice could be done to the greatest goaltending career in Rangers history, the Garden and its fans found a way last night.
NY Daily News, Dellapina #2: On a night that began with the celebration of a glorious past, the Rangers eventually had to attend to their precarious present. Unfortunately for them, they had a still-struggling Mike Dunham tending their goal rather than a vintage Mike Richter, whose number was retired before the puck was dropped.
NY Daily News, Dellapina #3: Invited to be an unacknowledged guest and attend a postgame celebration honoring Mike Richter, Keenan demurred, perhaps fearing a commotion surrounding him might hurt his chances to take over should Sather step down.
NY Daily News, Ross: The only false note in last evening's Mike Richter extravaganza was the stencil of his No. 35 painted on the ice behind the net. If there was one place Richter was ineffective, that patch of frozen water was it.
NY Daily News, Raissman: The Knicks and Rangers are headed for a new radio home. Now in their 16th year on WFAN, both teams will move to ESPN-1050 next season.

Newsday, Staple: There is never a good night to be bad in goal. So Mike Dunham picked the worst night to do so.
Newsday, Staple #2: Eric Lindros is not ready to retire, or even really thinking about it just yet. He was reportedly annoyed at a newspaper headline Wednesday that intimated he was considering retirement as he recovers from his eighth concussion, suffered eight days ago against the Capitals.
Newsday, Powell: The pregame tribute was designed for someone who spent his entire NHL career with one team, wore the Liberty mask proudly, conducted himself professionally, was darn near bulletproof in front of the net and performed more acrobatic wonders on ice than Sarah Hughes. But despite all that, the outpouring of emotion that cascaded from the stands inside the Garden wasn't just for Mike Richter. It was for what Richter represents: A fantastic but fading reminder of 1994.
Newsday Photo Gallery. 24 pictures of Richter ceremony.

Star-Ledger, Wentworth #1: As usual, Mike Richter started off the night with a joke. And, as usual, everyone -- all 18,000-plus -- laughed.
Star-Ledger, Wentworth #2: The chants of "Fire Sather!" that have been heard loud and clear at Madison Square Garden recently became "We want Richter!" last night during the Rangers' 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild. In other words, Mike Dunham did not have a good night in net.
Star-Ledger, Wentworth #3: Cablevision and Rangers officials tried Tuesday to convince Keenan they could smuggle him into and out of the building, but Keenan, who won a Stanley Cup with Richter in 1994, decided it was best to stay away.

Journal News, Gross: The Rangers raised Mike Richter's No. 35 to the rafters last night, and the classy 45-minute ceremony was a reminder of how great things can be at the Garden, of how the arena sounded in 1994 when the goalie finally stopped all those 1940 references.
Journal News, Weinman: If it had all the makings of a heartwarming evening, it all turned sour in a hurry — for no one more than Dunham.
Journal News, Lombardi: ESPN Radio has taken a huge step toward threatening WFAN's dominance as the leading sports radio station in the tri-state market by acquiring broadcast rights for the Knicks and Rangers in a multiyear deal with MSG Networks.

Did email Newsday today about their coverage of the Richter event, as they referred to Bure's "breakaway." The most important penalty shot in Rangers' history and they get it wrong. It was by a columnist who is Newsday's equivalent of Lupica, that is, he doesn't know diddly about the game.
Barbara, waving the banner of the sport that is somtimes referred to as a cult, and proud of it

Posted by: Barbara on February 6, 2004 01:20 AM