THERE was only one move for the Rangers to make, and by yesterday it was too late to make it. The one move for the Rangers was to bring Mark Messier back to Broadway.
And though, according to an impeccable source, Neil Smith placed not one call but in fact several to the Canucks to inquire about the Captain, the inquiries came too late to have an impact. Came too late to prompt Messier to surrender the no-trade privilege he had won in 1997.
Which means that the Rangers are on their own for the final 11 games of a season that began ugly and is dying bloody. Which means that devout underachievers such as Theo Fleury, Valeri Kamensky and Kevin Hatcher are still on their own. Which means that the Czechmates, three players who have never before been asked to carry a team but are burdened with the responsibility of carrying this one, are still on their own, too.
The Rangers had no meaningful size, toughness, menace or presence going into yesterday and so they still have none going into tonight’s Garden match against the Lightning, one of only two opponents the rest of the way who have fewer points than they do (the Bruins on April 1 are the other). They had no one to offer support for Petr Nedved before yesterday and so they still have no one to do it tonight. They had no one before yesterday to discourage the relentless pounding they’ve been subjected to and they still have no one to assume that role tonight.
The Rangers are today what they’ve been most of the season, less an NHL team than a Rotisserie one, less a unit than a collection of mercenaries; less, certainly than a sum of their $61 million parts. Subtract the single 21-day slice of January in which the Blueshirts somehow managed to go 9-1. Do the math. The record for the other 61 games, a far more representative sample than the sandwiched 10, is 19-32-10.
The Devils took their shot at the Stanley Cup yesterday by getting Alexander Mogilny a couple of weeks after getting Vladimir Malakhov. The Avalanche took their shot at the Cup last week by getting Raymond Bourque, and so did the Sabres by trading for Doug Gilmour and Chris Gratton. The Rangers, they had no bullets in their gun to take a shot at anything yesterday.
Neil Smith would have been a fool to sacrifice quality youth in order to bring a band-aid to Broadway. Among other reasons, we advocated trading for Messier because after pontificating about how he would do whatever No. 11 asked him to do, Brian Burke could not have held the Rangers up for someone like Manny Malhotra in such a deal.
Malhotra went back to Guelph yesterday a demoralized young man. Truth is, he has not been served well by anyone the last two years. He was a Trophy First Rounder last year, kept in the NHL at the age of 18 even after coming off a 16-goal year in junior hockey. He was a pawn this year, caught in a vortex that included management, coaches and agents.
Manny’s best interests…Manny’s best interests…Manny’s best interests…it might well have been a mantra, so often were those three words recited by elders who never congregated to discuss what those best interests might really be. Everyone instead seemed more interested in protecting his own turf, his own agenda. Malhotra should be demoralized. People he trusted to look after him, did not.
Smith explained yesterday’s lack of activity by citing commitment to his rebuilding program, by citing his refusal to send quality youth away for veterans. Again, no one would have suggested he do otherwise. But here’s the thing: the GM sometimes acts as if this plan to build with youth yet try to have moderate success — which is what finishing eighth denotes — is a unique one. Actually, everyone wants that. Teams even build with youth and win the Stanley Cup at the same time, like the Devils in 1995 or the Avalanche in 1996.
The hope for the Rangers is that they were right in drafting Malhotra seventh overall in 1998, and right not to include him in a package last year for Pavel Bure, right not to trade him at all. The hope for the Rangers is that they were right in drafting Pavel Brendl fourth overall last June and they were right in drafting Jamie Lundmark five slots later. The hope for the Rangers, the only hope for the Rangers, is that Smith and his scouts have judged talent well.
For it isn’t a program that does or does not succeed, it’s the quality of the people in administering and directing the program. They had better be right about their kids, that is the hope for the Rangers.
After yesterday, hope for the future is pretty much all that’s left, because the Rangers sure don’t have much for the present.