You Fired the Wrong Guy!

You didn't think it would come to this. I didn't think it would come to his. But, people, it has come to this. Yes, the lack of content on the site was so upsetting that Barney Sr. decided to take matters into his own hands and vent his frustrations about the Broadway Blueshirts by commenting on the recent firing of Head Coach Tom Renney. You won't want to miss this people, so please continue reading. 

The
true villain in this saga is Rangers’ President & GM, Glen Sather.  The once brilliant architect (as both a
coach and a GM) of the Edmonton Oilers, Mr. Five Stanley Cups has lost all his
magic in the Big Apple.  Maybe it’s
having to work for that dope, James Dolan, who has to be the worst sports team
owner in America.  Maybe he just
lost his edge in the Cablevision Empire where accountability is as scarce as honesty
in politics.  Whatever the reason
he has assembled the most overpaid and poorly matched team of hockey players
since the busted Athens 2004 Dream Team. 
These guys just don’t mesh; their styles are not consistent; and they
have shown no willingness to adapt to one another.  Sather assembled a collection of disparate personalities and
disposed of some of the critical leadership he had last year. (This is a
recurring theme with old Tomato Face. 
He also traded away Brian Leetch, a Rangers legend and an incredible
team leader.)  To make matters
worse, he signed some absurdly priced contracts that will take years to work
off and have seriously hamstrung the Rangers future Cup prospects.  The only team that could have done a
better job at executing this strategy is the Yankees!

Admittedly
the Rangers are in a tailspin and their journey to the post season is in grave
jeopardy.  The team needs a serious
jolt to remind the players they get paid to win hockey games not to skate
around in circles.  The Rangers
have had some serious flaws exposed this season.  They have given up a league leading 14 shorthanded goals and
tallied a paltry 35 power play goals in 253 attempts.  Looked at on a net basis, they are the least effective team
in the entire NHL when they have at least a man advantage. It was just 10 days
ago that the Flyers’ Mike Richards buried a goal while the Rangers had a 5-on-3
power play. The goal was a microcosm of the Rangers season, especially
considering it was the start of a 4 goal Flyers’ scoring spurt that spearheaded
their 5-2 triumph in front of a national TV audience. Though the majority of
the Rangers talent is at the forward positions, there offensive struggles are
the reason they find themselves in grave danger of missing the playoffs for the
first time in three years. The team has yet to have a 20-goal scorer on the
roster and they have played 60 games. Clearly offense was not Renney’s forte,
but part of the blame for the offensive struggles lies with the Rangers
underperforming forwards.

However
every great team is built on defense and Renney was exceptionally talented
manager at shoring up the weaken Rangers defensive corps.  He also hasn’t had much to work with,
until Sather dropped the $39 million man, Wade Redden on his head. Even though
signing Redden has turned out to be one of the worst managerial decisions in
NHL history, the Rangers still boast the 2^nd best PK unit in the
league are seventh in goals against per game. Now many will point to Lundqvist
as the reason why the Rangers defense has far exceeded expectations this year.
While Lundqvist is no doubt the best thing the Rangers defense has going for
them, he isn’t the sole reason why the Rangers D looks good on paper. Lundqvist
has a GAA of 2.57 this year, a noticeable increase from the 2.23 GAA he posted
last year. Clearly the D is doing something right, and their success this year
should be praised.

In
all fairness I believe Sather has had occasional flashes of intelligence.  The off-season 2007 acquisitions of
Gomez and Drury were bold moves and when added to Jags and Shanny, the Rangers
boasted an exciting and potent line up. 
Signing Avery from LA only worked because Renney knew what to do with
him. Sean Avery behaved himself when he had to answer to Shanahan in the locker
room. Brendan is as tough as they come and Sather was idiotic to let him
go.  It is not inconceivable that
Shanny will be hoisting Lord Stanley’s mug in June wearing a NY Devils jersey
while the Rangers are in their 2^nd month of Happy Gilmore golf.

Great
teams are a special combination of raw talent, discipline and leadership.  The Rangers have the talent, and they
may have the discipline, but they sure don’t have the leadership.  Glen Sather needs to take a hard look
in the mirror and recognize he alone is to blame for this debacle.  Tom Renney deserved better for what he
has done for the bruised Rangers pschye. 
Sather, on the other hand, traded away what worked for something that
couldn’t have even looked right on paper. 

So
we’ve burned through four coaches so far in the Sather era.  Hopefully the next casualty will be
Glen Sather (too bad he can’t take Dolan with him.)  In the meantime the Rangers and their fans will have to
suffer through several years of epic dysfunction until we can find someone with
a brain to help right this ship.