Richter Hangs Them Up
It is a day that Mike Richter has done everything to avoid, but this was one injury that even he couldn’t overcome. Tomorrow, the most successful goaltender in Rangers franchise history will announce that he will retire due to the lingering effects of consecutive concussions suffered in the previous two regular seasons. It’s a sad ending to an illustrious career, but one that has been foreseen by many and yet still a large number of his fans hoped he would some how once again overcome the seemingly impossible.
Richter was the model of perseverance and had a legendary off-ice work ethic that allowed him to come back from knee reconstruction on both of his knees (1999-00 and 2000-01) and then a concussion sustained off of a Chris Tamer slap shot as the 2001-02 season wound down. The injury left the Rangers netminder with a fractured skull and lingering effects that lasted over eight weeks after the fracture was sustained. A seemingly innocuous collision with Todd Marchant’s knee in a goal crease scramble during a game the Rangers were winning easily, turned out to be the final blow, for the soon to be 37 year old Richter. He dressed as a backup for one final game, before finally admitting in practice that things weren’t quite right…a situation that remains to this day.