Quote:
Originally Posted by RangerBoy
The Rangers have been playing their best hockey of the year?Really
4-5-1 in their last 10.6-5-1 since the all star break.With a home record of 12-13-3-no wonder why people are pessimistic.How do the Rangers have a home record of one game under .500 and expect to be a playoff team?
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The Rangers have been playing their most balanced, solid hockey all season since Renney shuffled the lines. You can argue all you want about how dire they were before and whether he should have tried this earlier, but that's not the point.
The most important point is that the Rangers are still in the playoff hunt. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Rangers need to instil a sense of "will-to-win" from the top to the bottom of the organisation. Brendan Shanahan himself said the same.
If the Rangers start selling now, while morale is high, while they're still within a shout of the playoffs, then they lose big time. They'll be sending the absolute wrong message to the players. They might be overpaid professionals, but they still want to be part of a team with ambition.
If the Rangers sell now, they won't just miss the playoffs, they'll lose all the players who realise that this organisation is a joke and don't want to be a part of it next year: Shanahan won't return, Jagr will sulk all next season, Nylander disappears and Straka goes into a hole, Sean Avery will revert to being a clown, Pöck won't return, Tyutin will retrograde to Bobo Mironov at his worst, Marc Staal's first season in the NHL is with a team that doesn't give a damn, so all he does is pick up bad habits.
I'm not saying all these things will happen, but it's a possibility. Giving up now is no different than overspending on high-priced stars in the hope that their talent can bring you the Cup without any hard work going into it. It's up to management to show the direction for the team, to lead the way. It's up to Sather, Maloney, Renney, Schoenfeld & Co. to prove to the players that they will support all of them who want to win and get rid of those who don't.
To that same end, if the Rangers implode over the next few games, come out flat, lose because they don't work, then yes, it is time for a firesale, but the message is the same: the Rangers must want to win.