CALGARY – Coach Tom Renney has searched north and south during the first half of the Ranger season, trying to find a center for the east-west Jaromir Jagr.
Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, even old linemate Martin Straka, needed a compass and a map to find the team’s best player, or whoever had taken over his body and robbed his hockey soul.
The Rangers are just another team in the Eastern Conference scramble if their star remains less than a point-a-game player. And last summer’s big-ticket signings of Drury and Gomez promise no upgrade from last spring’s second-round elimination if Jagr, who knows where and when he likes the puck, has a pout on about losing Michael Nylander in the free-agent shuffle.
In the Rangers’ first 34 matches, Jagr had two games with zero shots on goal, seven with one shot, nine with two. A number of those disappearances came while playing with Gomez, who had stopped skating in his fixation with feeding Jagr, who was waiting by his favorite spot just off the halfwall for pucks that never came.
If Jagr is not happy, the Rangers aren’t happy. So Plan A turned to Plans B, C, and D before reverting to Plan A. The Rangers open a three-game trip here tonight against Mike Keenan’s Flames with a Gomez-Jagr-Straka line having scored six goals in the last four games.
“We’re not thinking too much anymore,” said Gomez. “But a guy like Marty adds so much, opens things up for us.
“The guy who should get the credit is Marty, I can’t stress that enough.”
Certainly it’s easier to stress the role of Straka than it is to talk about historical stresses between the finicky Jagr and his linemates. Or, to explain that the secret of this surge is rooted in some necessary selfishness.
Instead of deferring to Jagr, Gomez is carrying the puck and backing off defensemen, allowing Jagr to drive to the net. Nobody could stop this express train in the old days in Pittsburgh. And in his old age in New York, defensemen no longer are allowed to even try.
The power play is clicking and the Rangers are starting to knock down wins at a pace more befitting their talent. And of course, Straka, uncannily strong along the wall for his 180 pounds, slick, and defensively aware enough to turn his linemates loose to create chances, is a factor he couldn’t be while missing 15 games with a broken finger.
“He does all the little things,” said Gomez. “Let’s face it, Jags and I aren’t exactly Selke Trophy [best defensive forward] candidates.”
The way things were going, neither were they Art Ross Trophy (scoring leader) candidates. But a good player finds ways to make two players better than just one. Or he wasn’t half the player he was reputed to be.