The Rangers get to take a rest and collect themselves for four days before returning to the ice Thursday to face the Isles, and boy did they need a break. After dropping their third straight game on Saturday night, the Rangers needed a few days off to get their legs back under them.
Unfortunately, however, some controversy follows them into the mini-vacation. You already know about the goaltending situation. Kevin Weekes has been named the #1 netminder, but Henrik Lundqvist looms right behind him. Now, some new developments have given rise to what we will call the "Poti Predicament".
The Poti Predicament goes back to when Tom was a young defenseman in Edmonton. In what turned out to be one of the poorest negotiating moves in the history of organized labor (that was a severe exaggeration just for effect), Tom Poti held out for nine days at the beginning of the 2001-02 season, after just three years with the Oilers in which he scored over 30 points twice. He went on to score only one goal and sixteen assists in 55 games with Edmonton that year. For the entire time, Poti was booed mercilessly by Oiler fans. Every time he touched the puck, the crowd would erupt in disdain for the 25 year old blueliner. If you talk to Edmonton fans, the boos were as much for his poor, non-physical play as it was for his holding out at the beginning of the season.
Of course, by this time, Glen Sather was in New York as the Rangers' GM. Sather was involved in drafting Poti for the Oilers and also brought him directly to the NHL from Boston University. Glen thought that his boy Poti just needed a change of scenery to find his game. So he trades fan favorite Mike York for Poti and Rem Murray. Before he was traded, York had 57 points in 69 games for the Rangers in 2001-02. (Many Poti-supporters cite this as the reason he was never adopted by the fans, but his detractors will tell you, like Oiler fans, it was for his soft play and poor defensive performances. Additionally, Rem Murray was never treated as badly as Poti, even though he was also included in that trade).
Poti has been on the receiving end of fans' ire since his first few games here in New York, despite the fact that he scored 48 points in his first full season with the team, and even made an All-Star appearance that year.
Fast forward to 2005. Poti has a mediocre camp, and then follows that up with a poor start to the season. Coach Tom Renney decides to bench Poti and Jamie Lundmark. Poti returns with some inspired play, including last Wednesday's performance against the Islanders. I felt it was one of the best games I had ever seen Tom play. On Thursday, he again had a mediocre game, but was by far not the worst defenseman for the Rangers. Renney once again benches Poti for Saturday's game against the Sabres (unfairly in my opinion).
So now we have this:
"The first time (coach Tom Renney) sat me out, I bounced back great, I played five awesome games in a row, doing what I was supposed to do, carrying the puck, joining the rush, making plays, creating offense," Poti told the The Star-Ledger after yesterday's morning skate. "And then against the Islanders (on Thursday), I had an average game. (But) the whole team played average, and I'm the only guy that gets sat out."
Renney's response:
"As with all of our defensemen, you've got to come off the walls hard in your own end, you've got to be firm at your net, you've got to do all of that within the rules of the game," Renney said. "But it does take body position and some battle. And obviously, I hope this message, through Tom, gets to other people as well, so that they don't have to be the victim of coming out of the lineup either."
I think Poti is a little disillusioned with his assessment that he played "five awesome games in a row". Apparently there is no confidence issue with Tom. Coach Renney talked about body position and being firm at the net, and to be honest, those are the most glaring flaws in Poti's game.
There have been abundant rumors that Poti might be dealt, but it seems as if there are few buyers out there for a $2.36 million dollar defenseman that isn't great defensively and only has a couple of assists in eight games. As Larry Brooks points out in his NY Post article today, it might prove virtually impossible to move Poti at that price, especially since "the Blueshirts didn't get so much as a nibble on him during the Deadline Purge of '03."
I always subscribe to the theory of "where there is smoke, there is fire", and unfortunately for Poti, there are reasons why there are no bidders for him, and there are reasons why fans in both of the only two cities in which he has played despise him.
I don't know what the answer is, but I can tell you that the last thing this team needs is a problem in the locker room. Maybe his teammates are siding with him, maybe they are not. But in this 'rebuild' era, we certainly don't need Tom Poti grumbling around the young players.
Luckily, Coach Renney will be going over video with Poti to try and show him the problems in his game. I hope they are able to mend fences during those sessions, as Poti could be an important piece to this team's success, if he is able to turn his game around. If he isn't able to do so, I don't know what the Rangers' are going to do with him.
Blueshirt Bulletin covers the Rangers poor play on Saturday, and addresses the Poti situation towards the bottom of the update.
In news that has nothing to do with Tom Poti, we have the Rodent.
HDH
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