It seems like we have been saying this a lot this season, but once again the Rangers have a big month coming up.
January 12th will be a tremendously emotional night at Madison Square Garden, to be sure. Before the start of the season, this was one of the only predictable highlights of the first year of the Rangers' rebuilding season. Mark Messier will finally get his crystal stick (maybe he should give it to Jagr since his break so easily) and have his legendary #11 raised to the rafters. They will surely parade much of the 1994 Stanley Cup team onto the Garden ice, and his former club, the Edmonton Oilers, will be in the building to face the Rangers.
While that is all fine and great and wonderful, I am really not all that concerned with it. What I am worried about are the nine games at home for January, many of them against division and conference rivals. Two of those games are against the Atlantic Division leading Flyers, two more games against the Penguins, and single games against Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Boston, Florida, and the Devils.
As some people have mentioned on the message boards, the Rangers have almost half of their starting roster playing in the Olympics. If they flounder through January and the six games in February, one would be asking for a rather worn out group of players to make a playoff run in March and April where they will play 24 games in just 48 days . . . ALL of them against Eastern Conference teams. They NEED to build themselves a cushion now. They have a five game homestand, followed by a four game road trip, followed by another five game homestand coming up. This is the time they really need to step up and steal whatever points they can.
If Glen Sather and Don Maloney are going to make any moves to improve this club (and NOT give up any young players other than Marcel Hossa and Fedor Fedorov), they need to do it now. This year's trade deadline is March 10th. Immediately following that date, the Rangers play 12 games in 20 days. Just prior to that date (and immediately following the end of the Olympic break), they play the Flyers, the Devils, the Hurricanes, and the Thrashers . . . ALL contenders for playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
You see what I am getting at? Well, for one I hate the idea of an Olympic break. It compresses the schedule, and you have some teams resting most of their players while others have a large contingency traveling halfway around the world to play a grueling Olympic schedule.
Secondly, and more importantly, the Rangers can't be looking to the trade deadline to make improvements. They must be done now, but I am not necessarily suggesting trades. If Maloney and Sather decide that they want to try some of the players from Hartford before looking outside the organization, that also has to happen sooner rather than later.
Marcel Hossa needs to go. He is wasting space up here. Ville Nieminen has had his ups and downs, and perhaps an upgrade can be found for him. If Colton Orr is going to continue to be scratched 14 of every 17 games, and average about 3 minutes per game when he is dressed, maybe someone else can be put on the roster to platoon with some of the other wingers.
Nonetheless, the Tom Renney and the Rangers need to make sure they stay motivated for the next month. Their playoff fate will more than likely be decided before Turin.
It all starts tomorrow at MSG against the Lightning.
Don't forget, in honor of Mark Messier Night, Hockeybird is offering a free hat to six lucky readers, courtesy of FashionFlash.net. Just click that link, and send in an email for chance to win. Plus, just for being a Hockeybird reader, you can purchase a hat for just $5 from them. Check it out.
HDH
Posted by Jim at January 02, 2006 12:39 PMeMail this entry!
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