AS George McGovern said 30 years ago, “Who’s next?”
Make no mistake. Herb Brooks not only did the Rangers a huge favor by backing out of his implied commitment to Glen Sather, but by doing so only validated the GM’s misgivings about offering the 64-year-old the job as head coach of the NHL’s marquee franchise.
That’s all the Blueshirts would have needed, Brooks deciding at next month’s Entry Draft that the task would be too demanding, or deciding that at training camp, or even during a road trip in November. That’s all the Rangers would have needed, another Jeff Van Gundy walking out on his team.
Whatever the rationalizations coming from Brooks’ camp, whatever assaults there are directed at Sather over this mini-fiasco, this is on the reluctant coach. What, he would have taken the job last Friday, but not yesterday? Oh, please.
Brooks, who began campaigning for the job within a week of winning silver at Salt Lake, owed the Rangers better than this. If Sather wanted to keep his options open after interviewing Brooks a week ago Monday, now we can understand why. But again: better now than later. Better to break the engagement rather than take the wedding gifts, enjoy the honeymoon, and file for divorce immediately thereafter.
It’s obvious enough. Brooks didn’t have the stomach for the job.
Let’s get this straight. The Rangers haven’t been beaten to anyone. Sather didn’t want Ken Hitchcock. Because the Flyers, who have played the trap for a number of years and who aren’t in desperate need of free agents, hired Hitchcock, that doesn’t make the Rangers wrong in not hiring him. Because Dallas jumped at Dave Tippett, it doesn’t mean the Rangers were wrong not to hire the neophyte. Everyone around the league says so – it’s different coaching in Manhattan.
The Rangers start from scratch here. There’s one essential deadline to meet: They have to have a coach in place when the free agent bell rings at 12:00:01 a.m. of July 1. Time is now on their side.
Sather is likely to wait for Detroit so he can speak to associate coach Dave Lewis, 14 years with the Red Wings, the last nine as Scotty Bowman’s chief aide. He’ll check on Colorado assistant Bryan Trottier. Guy Carbonneau? The Montreal assistant himself has recently admitted to friends that he’s not ready to take over an NHL team.
And because the calendar is now an ally, Sather might well find other avenues opening. San Jose’s Darryl Sutter could become available. If Jacques Martin is dismissed by the Senators, he conceivably could land in Florida with new GM Rick Dudley, with whom he worked in Ottawa – a scenario that would open a path to Mike Keenan. With another few weeks in which to put last season behind him, Larry Robinson might decide that working next season on Broadway might just be up his alley, after all.
These are all maybes. That’s understood. There is, however, one other candidate Sather should not only consider, but interview immediately. And that’s Ron Wilson.
Forget the Caps turning on him last season in his fifth year behind the team’s bench and forget the problems with Jaromir Jagr. The man can flat out coach. In Anaheim, he sprung Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne loose in a West Coast offense. Last year, with his squad decimated by injuries, he went to eight defensemen. He is creative. He can coach talent. He can win.
In fact, Wilson won the 1996 World Cup with Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Billy Guerin and Chris Chelios – and nearly every American who finished second to Canada this time playing for Brooks.
And Wilson won it by beating Sather.
That wouldn’t have anything to do with the GM’s apparent lack of interest in him, would it?