Hockeybird.com: Quote Happy

Yup. I'm warning you in advanced that I got a little crazy with the quotes today. But hey, this will be my last update of the 2003/2004 season and I have nothing profound to say so indulge me with the excessive quoting.

For some odd reason I rarely quote our homegrown writers. Perhaps that's because I want you to have to go read their articles rather than depending on my summaries. For example, I will tell you only that this morning The Rodent marks the end of an era and waxes philosophic. Now you have to go read the article to see what I'm talking about.

Heather. On The Farm.
'Nuff said? It should be if you have any witts about you but I will further encourage you with some further salacious details. It's a long piece. Additonally, it's highly informative, especially with regard to Layne Ulmer who will be playing with the big club on Saturday. (And before anyone writes in to complain about my use of the word salacious, yes, I am aroused. The column is that good.)

While performing exploratory surgery on Blackburn's left shoulder at Columbia University Hospital that was admittedly a hopeful stab, shoulder specialist Dr. Lou Biglianni and team orthopedist Dr. Andrew Feldman discovered that a bit of scar tissue was impinging on the dormant nerve injured last July.

...It remains uncertain whether the nerve heals and when it resumes firing to enable Blackburn to get back on the ice.

Well, lets all send our best wishes along to Dan. Meanwhile, Dunham, who we all loved when he arrived in New York and who is a live long Ranger fan, is not sorry about coming to the Rangers and would love a chance to bounce back from his disasterous season:

"Yeah, if they want me here, yeah," he said after practice yesterday. "It's a fun place to play. Getting to play for the New York Rangers, to me growing up in (Johnson City) New York is a privilege. It's an honor putting on that Rangers jersey. And I've enjoyed it since I've gotten here.

"Sure, there have been some ups and downs. But that's part of hockey. I still go out there every day and try my hardest and then I go home and play with my daughter."

In this morning's Post, Andrew Marchand tells us what we all excted -- that Messier will not play in Washington. Josef Balej had this to say on setting up what was likely the last goal of Messier's storied career:

"It's one of the greatest things that could possibly ever happen to me," said the 22-year-old Balej, who is from Slovakia. "It's going down in history. It is possibly his last goal in his last game. He told me he wanted to take a picture with me and the puck. That would be great."

From the same article, one has to wonder if Renney is merely being political with the following comments, or fif he's actually had a change of heart:

"I wouldn't have thought this in November of 1997," said Renney, referring to when he and Messier did not get along in Vancouver, which helped lead to Renney's Canuck coaching tenure ending. "I'm grateful to be a part of the organization, first and foremost, and to work in this city.

"The fact of the matter is Mark is here. It's just been terrific. It just goes to show how things come around. You get an opportunity to get reacquainted with people and connect at a new and different level in a lot of cases, which is what I think Mark and I did. I'm just real grateful to be part of this the whole year."

Arthur Staple has what may be my favorite article of the day and what his sure to be Heather's least favorite article of the day. He specualtes that Wolfpack coach Ryan McGill may be the next man behind the Ranger bench.

Ryan McGill, 35, and former Ranger and Staten Island native Nick Fotiu, 52, have taken the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate to the top of its division this season, their second as the respective head coach and assistant coach. Working with an even younger, more disjointed (thanks to injuries and the huge number of call-ups to the big club) squad, McGill and Fotiu have done what Glen Sather could not in New York: make the team win.

And, perhaps more important when Sather is choosing his fourth Rangers coach in five seasons, McGill has gotten his team to adhere to the defensive system that just about every NHL team uses, but that Sather and his staff could not get the Rangers to buy into yet again.

Everybody knows my feelings on the subject of coaching but I'll repeat them again. Coaching is everything and poor coaching is the primary reason for the Rangers failure these past 7 years. If the above quotes aren't enough to illustrate the contrast between the situation in Hartford and that in New York, consider this quote from goaltender Jason LaBarbera:

"We've all just checked our egos at the door and gone out and played the system," LaBarbera said. "We've got some guys in here who could score 30 goals and 80 points, but we don't need individual stars here. We've had so many guys in and out of the lineup, it's a testament to the coaching staff that we've been successful with all the different players."

See also Heather's column again. While I've been crossing my fingers and hoping for Quenville, this article has me hoping to see the Hartford coaching staff in New York next season. If they can remain committed to the principals that have brought them success with the Wolfpack, the Rangers rebuild will be off to an excellent start. Additionally, with so many former Wolfpack players expected to play for the Rangers next season, the continuity would be healthy.

The Journal News has the Messier story again and The New York Times has an article on Scott Stephens and Mark Messier that I honestly got bored with and stopped reading halfway through.

It's odd. I should be feeling despondant at the end of yet another diasterous season but, you know what? I've really been enjoying watching the younger players over the past couple of weeks and am looking forward to seeing what will come next season. Who will develop into the next Ranger star and who will bust? Only time will tell but it's the beginning of a new era of Ranger history and I'm excited as all hell.

McGill is 35? In previous years, he'd have barely been old enough to put on the ice. Guess it would really show whether Sather is serious about a youth movement.

Posted by: Alex on April 2, 2004 09:35 PM