Back in the day, Rangers-Islanders made for some of the greatest and most compelling sports competition in our extended neighborhood.
Once there were Bossy, Trottier, Potvin and Smith on one side and Davidson, Greschner, Hedberg and Esposito on the other. Then there were Leetch, Richter, Graves and Messier playing for Broadway’s team, with Turgeon, Healy, Thomas and Hogue representing the suburban dwellers.
Those were the days in which the Battle for New York made for theater, the days when the winner actually had accomplished something; when the survivor could actually use that triumph as a stepping stone to playing for a prize called the Stanley Cup.
But that was an era long, long ago and far, far away. Last night’s episode at the Garden, in which the Islanders gained a 2-1 victory in a match devoid of excitement in a building devoid of emotion, was a stepping stone to ninth place.
To call Rangers-Islanders of this age a Battle of New York is to accord it significance it no longer merits. Now, when our two New Yorks get together on a sheet of ice, they produce a skirmish for a molehill.
The Rangers have won two playoff rounds since 1997, one in 2007 and one in 2008. The Isles have not won a playoff round since 1993. The Rangers have no wins in their last five (0-3-2) games, one in their last nine (1-6-2) and seven in 25 (7-15-3) since Oct. 17. The Islanders, 2-4 in their last six and 8-8-2 in the last 18, are comparatively scalding.
The skirmish for a molehill.
There are and have been excuses for the Islanders, of course, most prominently the string of charlatans who occupied the owner’s suite prior to Charles Wang; the impossible task of recruiting marquee free agents to play at the crumbling Coliseum; and the lack of revenue to bribe even the most sought-after, second-tier free agents to join the cause.
There have been no excuses for the Rangers other than their own management’s stunning ineptitude and lack of singular vision both before the lockout throughout their seven-year absence from the playoffs and now over the last two, post-Jaromir Jagr summers.
The Isles are attempting to build through the Entry Draft in what within the industry is universally called, “the right way,” as if there is an alternative for a franchise that plummets to lottery status and doesn’t have the cash or cache to accelerate a rebuild from the bottom.
The Rangers, well, ever since the decision was made to end the Jagr Era after three full seasons, it is impossible to determine just how exactly they have been attempting to make the jump from the middle of the pack to the — sing it, Frank — Top of the Heap.
It isn’t only that 57 different players have suited up in Blueshirts since the start of the 2007-08 season, the one for which Scott Gomez and Chris Drury were hired to augment Jagr (and Brendan Shanahan). It’s that with each summer beginning in 2007, management has built a structure with the staying power of a sand castle.
There was the Gomez-Drury summer followed by the Wade Redden-Nikolai Zherdev-Michal Rozsival summer, followed by the Marian Gaborik-Donald Brashear summer. There was a team directed by Jagr, a team turned over to Gomez and Drury, a team now in the hands of John Tortorella.
Once the Rangers were steak and sizzle and a Broadway marquee. Once the Islanders were arguably the greatest team in NHL history.
That was then, the time of the Battle for New York. This is now, when after a victory such as last night the Isles get to beat their chests and proclaim, “Top of the molehill, ma, top of the molehill.”