by Jess Rubenstein
Sometimes one has to laugh at the ironies of life. When one wants to look to see if there is justice in this universe all they have to do is go back the evening of January 26th and realize that there is. Ranger fans remember that night all too well as it was the evening that James Dolan professed his love, his support and all of his confidence for Glen Sather.
Junior Dolan told the media how he felt the Rangers were in the best possible hands with Glen Sather at the helm. How thanks to Sather all will be well in Rangerland and that Sather’s job was safe. Junior then supposedly repeated the same message to the team in a closed-door meeting in the locker room after the game.
Of course the 26th was also the last time the Rangers won a game. Since the vote of confidence from the President of the World’s Most Famous Arena the Rangers have lost 3 straight games. One can now say that Sather has a new excuse to explain away this current losing streak, he can say it was a Junior’s fault. If you didn’t understand the meaning of morbid humor before then one look at the Rangers and you will.
Laughter seems to be the only thing that is left for a Ranger fan to do these days as what else do we have left. Any hope of a playoff spot has disappeared no matter how much the WFMAs spin-doctors will tell you otherwise. A team that can’t beat either the Capitals or Sabres is finished. After all this past week was supposed to be nothing but gimmee wins for the Rangers and they only got one win.
Yep got to blame Junior for opening his mouth but the other thing ironic about all of this is that by saying all the stuff Junior did he also shot himself in the backside to where he can’t do anything to Sather for a while. To fire Sather no more than a week after his impassioned speech of support would make Junior look like the village idiot most Ranger fans already think of him as.
The village idiot has made a mockery of a franchise that once had fans proud to be associated with them. It didn’t matter to many of us that the team went so long without a championship as we always had hope of a brighter tomorrow. Now we don’t even have that thanks to the leadership of Junior.
It used to be that even during this streak without the playoffs that many fans hung on to the hope that the streak would come to an end. One has to look very long and very far to find a Ranger fan that still believes in the team. Even fewer believe in Sather and that despite Junior’s vote of confidence has sealed Sather’s fate. It is now just a matter of when no longer an “if” or “maybe”.
Unless a miracle happens (and this won’t be a movie version either) Glen Sather will not be back after this season. The damage has been done, it is too deep and there is no way Ranger fans will find it easy to either forgive or forget. The way this season is heading the Rangers are on a path that could make this season’s record the worst since this non-playoff streak started and even possibly worse since the early 1960s.
The Rangers since Jan 1 have gone 4-10-2-1 for a grand total of 11 points out of a possible 34. It wasn’t that the schedule was a killer as there was no major road trips. There were 11 games against teams holding playoff spots and the Ranger record was 2-5-2-1 against them. If the Rangers didn’t for whatever reason own the Islanders one has to wonder just how bad the record would be.
To be honest the season actually ended this weekend when the Rangers fell 8 points behind the Islanders for the 8th seed. It put the Rangers on a pace to wind up with 76 points while the Islanders are now on a pace for 90 points. If you thought that this past month was bad then allow me to introduce you to what is next the month of February.
Introducing February with 12 games and only 2 of them are against teams not holding a playoff spot. However even those 2 teams have better records than the Rangers do so those aren’t going to be easy games. It is very possible that the Rangers could wind up with only 2 wins for the month only if the Rangers continue to own the Islanders.
If anyone believes that the Rangers who can’t beat the Capitals or the Sabres can beat the Devils (2 games), the Flyers (2), Senators, Preds, Thrashers or the Canadians more power to you. While you believe that they could win, please share whatever you are taking to ease your pain with the rest of us. Those teams in their own ways pose matchup problems for the Rangers. Either they are too fast, too physical or too smart for the Rangers to defeat. Heck at this point a Ranger fan has to be concerned about playing the Islanders despite already winning 4 games from them.
Thanks to a vote of confidence Sather will most likely make it another month but rest assured that when Junior has to tell Daddy that he has to lower ticket prices 10% for the next NHL season that he will need a head on the platter. That head will be Sather’s mainly because the GM who lived by the excuse and scapegoating will lose his job by a higher up doing it to him.
Like I said sometimes one has to laugh at the ironies of life, it will be fitting that Junior Dolan will himself use the person who lived by the excuse as an excuse for his mistakes.