The most encouraging aspect of Jim Dolan’s State of the Rangers address on Tuesday was the absence of an “or else,” in the CEO’s evaluation of his club as “pretty close” to winning a Stanley Cup.
The endorsement of the building process was unqualified and absent implications that the organization presided over by GM Glen Sather either requires or would seek shortcuts in pursuit of the club’s first championship since 1994.
In other words, the owner is all in on one of coach John Tortorella’s most important tenants, which in a three-word sound bite is simply this:
“It’s a process.”
No undue inferences should be drawn from last night’s 4-1 Madison Square Garden loss to the Penguins that left the Rangers 2-3 over the last eight days, thus marking the first time in a five-game stretch the club has failed to earn at least five points.
The Rangers were outplayed and out-thought by a talented team playing with a dollop of desperation after having gone winless in the previous six between the clubs. The Rangers were a step slow, unable to press the issue on the forecheck, unable to dominate the ground game.
For once, Henrik Lundqvist was not the best player on the ice. That distinction belonged instead to Evgeni Malkin, who played with a chip on his shoulder and a smirk on his face, neither of which the Rangers came close to knocking off.
The Rangers are 29-12-4 and second overall in the NHL in percentage points. They are struggling to score, eight goals in the last five, with Marian Gaborik having gone dry, Ryan Callahan somehow not quite an irresistible force on the puck and Brad Richards a shadow of himself most critically on the power play that is 0-for-14 in the last seven, 1-for-27 in the last dozen and 3-for-45 in the last 18.
But this is neither the time to be jumping off the bandwagon that has been rolling down Broadway nor the time for Sather to ponder a change in the painstaking building process that more likely than not will feature further pain before glory.
There is nothing wrong with dreaming impossible dreams, nothing wrong with shooting for the moon, nothing wrong with an excited owner talking about being “pretty close” as long as the organization’s eyes don’t get too big for its stomach.
For this must be understood: Even in a conference where every team other than the defending Cup champion Bruins appears pock-mocked with deficiencies, even if the Rangers could be one player away from a trip to the Eastern finals, that does not equate to being One Player Away.
There is no single individual out there whose acquisition would install the Rangers as an odds-on choice to advance through two rounds, let alone three, much less win the Cup; not Rick Nash, not Shea Weber, not Ryan Suter and not Bobby Ryan.
There is no individual whose acquisition is worth dismantling the program. Long ago and in a galaxy far away everyone thought it the wise decision to tear up an evolving core by shipping Pat Hickey, Mike McEwen, Lucien DeBlois and Mario Marois — all significant components in the trip to the 1979 Cup Final — to Colorado for Barry Beck. It wasn’t the wise move at all.
This is not the time for a blockbuster; this is not the time for the GM to seek a shortcut through the building process.
Because not only doesn’t “pretty close” necessarily mean June of 2012, nobody is demanding it should.
Not even the owner.