NHL

GOMEZ WAS BIG APPLE DISASTER

New York wiped the smile off Scott Gomez’ face.

Really, it is difficult to remember a fall from grace so swift as the one that befell Gomez over the course of the two calendar years he was a Ranger. When Gomez bolted from New Jersey as a 2007 free agent after seven seasons during which he won a pair of Stanley Cups as well as the 2000 Calder Trophy, he only had eyes for the bright lights of Broadway that he’d been so close to, yet so far away from, across the Hudson.

GOMEZ GONE; NOW RANGERS CAN $HOP

On July 1, 2007, the Rangers needed a center to replace Michael Nylander, departing as a free agent. They needed someone who could get the puck to Jaromir Jagr. They needed a player with speed and creativity to transport the puck. They needed a player with Gomez’ skills. They needed to pay him $51.5M over seven years to get him to sign, but regardless, they had themselves a talented 27-year-old center who couldn’t stop smiling when he talked about getting to live the dream of playing on the biggest stage in the world.

It didn’t work with Jagr, who was unhappy at losing the sympatico Nylander over a contract dispute, only to replace him with a center requiring the puck in the middle when No. 68 demanded possession on the wall. Gomez and Jagr could not have been less complementary pieces.

Still, Gomez might have been the Rangers’ best player the second half of 2007-08 playing primarily between Sean Avery and Brendan Shanahan. He was a key figure in the Rangers’ five-game, first-round rout of the Devils in 2008, dominating even while booed every time he touched the puck in Newark.

Last summer, the Rangers underwent their extreme makeover, in essence turning the direction of the team over to Gomez and Chris Drury, who also had signed as a free agent on July 1, 2007 (for five years at $35.25M) and who also failed to mesh with Jagr.

“We’re going to use Drury and Gomez in an offensive way we think will utilize their abilities, and we made changes around that,” Sather said last July 3 after informing Jagr his services were no longer desired.

“It’s going to be me and Chris now, and that’s what we wanted when we came to New York,” Gomez said last July 2, after the Blueshirts had acquired Nikolai Zherdev from Columbus to be his winger. “If I’m playing with Zherdev, it’s going to be up to me to make it work, and I’m up for that.

“We’re going to be an in-your-face team that pressures the puck. I’ve been talking with Chris and he feels exactly the way I do. We’re ready for the responsibility.”

No, they weren’t and no, Gomez wasn’t. He never meshed with Zherdev, who also needed the puck at all times. Gomez played much of October with a bad ankle. He played nearly all of the remainder of the season, dispirited, rarely a positive factor, turning away from contact, giving away the puck.

Gomez underachieved for Tom Renney and was unable to regain even a semblance of the dynamic game he’d owned as a Devil after John Tortorella took command on Feb. 23. His game had deteriorated beyond repair. He surely was one of the players Tortorella had in mind when citing a handful of Rangers as being out of condition.

His game was gone, his smile was gone, and he was going. The Rangers had been dangling Gomez for months. They needed to clear cap space. They needed to move forward without Gomez.

“If you perform up to expectations, play hard every day, game in and game out and be productive, there’s a chance you’ll never be traded,” Sather said yesterday afternoon after announcing that Gomez had been traded.

Gomez’ heart was in the right place two summers ago. But his eyes exceeded his commitment. New York was too big for him.