THE team that left its identity behind this summer apparently is on the verge of leaving good sense and common decency behind as well.
What would have been a routine season-opening preview in this space is now instead a warning to the Rangers that scratching Petr Prucha from today’s season-opener in Prague against the Lightning will negate every cliche about all-for-one and one-for-all that anyone in the organization dares to utter.
What in the world could coach Tom Renney be thinking? How on earth could he deny Prucha, who has been among the most energetic Rangers throughout training camp, a uniform in his homeland and hand one instead to Fredrik Sjostrom, Nigel Dawes or Aaron Voros, three players whose preseason work was lukewarm, at best?
If No. 25 does not play today, and that certainly appeared the plan yesterday when Prucha remained on the ice late following practice and then stormed away from the O2 Arena, this will be nothing less than humiliation, and coming from a coach who is nothing but decent, kind and caring.
It doesn’t compute. None of it computes. This entire disjointed training camp does not compute. Jumping from city to city and country to country with split squads in order to jam in three Garden gates and eight preseason games altogether? Ridiculous.
Carrying 15 forwards into the season and against the cap because management can’t make a decision on which of the glut of million-dollar fourth-liners to cut? Absurd.
Having Jim Schoenfeld, the assistant GM, on the ice at every practice barking out instructions as if he were a member of the coaching staff? Outrageous.
The preview? Everyone knows the story of the extreme makeover the team underwent this summer. No more Jaromir Jagr. No more Sean Avery. No more – at least for now – Brendan Shanahan.
It’s all about speed now, all about moving the puck, all about getting rid of the alleged distractions in the room. It’s all about redemption and breaths of fresh air for Wade Redden, associate captain Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev, all of whom are attempting to either resurrect or jump-start their respective careers.
It’s all about associate captain Scott Gomez needing to play All-Star caliber hockey from beginning to end for the first time in a career throughout which he has flourished as a supporting actor.
It’s all about Henrik Lundqvist being as steadfast night in and night out – 70 of them, in fact, and on knees that will require monitoring – as Martin Brodeur has been since 1993-94.
It’s all about Renney coaching a team without Jagr and Shanahan to lean on, and it’s all about this group filling the huge voids created with the decision to dispose of the team’s post-lockout identity as if it were toxic.
It’s all about one of the most vanilla Rangers teams in memory bonding in order to form a unit greater than the sum of its underwhelming parts.
Bonding? By slapping Prucha across the face before telling him to go sit in the stands with his friends and family?
There’s a right way to go about things and a wrong way; a right way to start the season and a wrong way. Scratching Prucha tonight is the wrong way, in every way.
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Chris Drury was named the team captain last night by Renney and general manager Glen Sather during a team dinner. Drury also served as co-captain of the Sabres with Danny Briere before signing with the Rangers in 2007.