Day: July 16, 2006

With the benefit of reflection (and a good deal of hindsight) I have come to the conclusion that last year indeed was a fluke.  The planets aligned, it was a perfect storm…call it what you will, but the Rangers finally had fortune on their side and that, more than anything else, enabled them to have such a successful season.  Now you might ask how I can be so dismissive of a season in which the head coach, leading scorer and goaltender were all nominated for league awards?  If you can bear to indulge me a little, I am prepared to share my conclusions.

With respect to comedy, they say timing is everything, and so it was for the 2005-06 Blueshirts.  Just like the 1993-94 Stanley Cup has been often attributed to the influx of veterans from the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the late 80s, much of last season’s success can be attributed to a core of Czech players who had played and had success together both in the NHL and on the international stage.  The Czech Rangers, as they were sometimes referred to instantly brought a ready made core to a team that was decidedly lacking one.  Unlike many of their North American counterparts, almost all the Rangers leading players had played the lockout year in Europe and played a style of offense conducive to taking advantage of power play situations and the stricter enforcement of interference.

Submitted by slammediam30 July 19th, 2006

I went to my first NHL game at Ottawa a few years ago, must have been 99, when Gretz, Richter, and Beukeboom played. We got to the Corel center early, to pick up our tix that we ordered online. In front of us was this 6ft tall, elderly white/blonde haired woman with a think think accent (sounded, Austrian, but I don’t really recall), also waiting for some tickets. Just making chit chat, my mom and her started to talk, and she mentions that she’s here to see her son play. So she asks what his name was, turn out, we were talking to Jeff Beukeboom‘s mother!