was gonna post this in the pre game thread but felt it would be better in it's own thread as the whole post isn't really about tonights game.there is appreciation for the king as always too.
i had a feeling sellin this game in sept would come back to bite me in the a**, im beyond pumped up after tonights big win and we are gonna try to get seats up in the west balcony. i have been wanting to see a game up there since i stepped foot up there. if not 3's or 4's will have to do. tonights game is gonna be real emotionial,physical, and exciting game.this time #68 JJ will be in the lineup to make his return to MSG, i cannot wait to give him the standing o he absolutely without a doubt that he deserves.
back in early oct 2005 before the new era in the league and as us well, before a game was played i just stared at the roster and thought this team was going to be in the bottom 5 for atleast 2 years. i was 16 at the time, from what i remember the team looked like it was put together within 72 hours. no name players on defense and forward lines. top 2 lines were all aging stars or ? marks (shanny,straka,nylander,rucinsky,naslund, jagr etc). kevin weekes was solid or slighty better than avg goaltender who would have had to move mountains. some rookie named henrik was the backup, i knew nothing of him. we started the season great that year and kept it up consistently to my suprise and many others. weekes was playing real well for us at the time and jagr looked like the one that played in pittsburgh. well weekes gets hurt and we thought it was all over early in the season meanwhile sitting in 1st place. in comes the rookie henrik lundqvist and well u know the rest is history and never looked back. #68's magnificent season kept along his pace towards most goals in a seasons for rangers rw among other records. just like the rangers should have won the division by leading the whole year except ******** the bed the past 2 or 3 weeks, jagr SHOULD have beaten that soft bimbo thornton. he also lost out on the RR trophy to a guy thats in the minors now probably. i was mad when jagr didnt get it by like 2 maybe 3 points as well as trailing by a couple of goals at most. that was the best season i have ever seen a rangers player have.
jagr and henrik catapulted this franchise as well us all of diehard weary,battered and beaten down fanbase to instant respectability again. even though we had some old guys on the squad that year, it wasnt the previous era where smith brought in old aging and underachieving stars where he did basically what the devils are doing to themselves now. which chooses to live and die by hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for the last time with that group. he was fired after missing playoffs 3 straight years as the team regressed each year after 97 playoffs. smith left us with an old team and nothing in the minors. as we know sather made it worse.
so basically i just wanna show my never dying thankful appreciation for jagr, although he is a flyer and this is the first and last time i will ever give one to a flyers player lol. he lead us to 3 straight playoffs without really any supporting cast.i loved when jagr would draw 2 sometimes even 3 men on him trying to get him off the puck/contain him. usually that opened up the space for everybody else to score. henrik was just an instant star before the first period ever ended in his first start. since i have been watching in 94, maybe 3 goalies or 4 tops if that many at all have ever in this league come storming out of the gates like lundquist did. it was amazing he was setting and breaking nhl and ranger records, rookie ones as too.all he did at the time was win 30 plus that year and ofcourse won the gold medal with sweeden. only patrick roy, brodeur, maybe hasek or belfour? i know belfour had a great start toi his career. i said it since the olympics in 06 and i will stand by it, i always thought to myself that THIS is the guy that is going to win us our next cup.he also hasnt won a vezina which is crazy thinking about it. he should have atleast 1 or even 2 now. i said then hell win us our next cup bc of how great and established he was in international hockey already and proved it nationally that february and also bc he was 23 and i knew the rangers werent letting him go bc hes the real deal. that guy has been worth his 6.875 mill a year plus all 39 million of reddens deal as well. by that i mean that money shoulda went to hank for just june,july,and august. thats just a thank you because of who and what he has done and continues to do for us.
so now thinking back, where do you think we would be right now if henrik lundquist was really just the 9th rounder and never became who he was? same goes for jagr, what if we got capitals version instead of the penguins one? i think if we never had henrik, the whole organization would look very diff today. when you draft a goalie who becomes an immediate elite top 5 stud goalie like hank changes the way the team wants to do in the futre (draft,trades,development etc). we easily would have been one of the worst 5 or 10 teams for the first 3/4 years maybe even 5. it could have happened very,very easily. i realize when you have a hank or a rinne, goaltenders like that easily steal around or about 10 wins a year. especially hank we see him do it every year. since we have hank i think he alone saved this team 3-4 years of development time. god we are so damn lucky to have this man! i dont know if its just me but when im watching on tv or at the game it somehow seems that you can feel the emotion and burning desire to win through the tv or feel it flow through you at the game. im 95% sure i have never felt that from another player, considering the fact that we have a 10 tool hockey player in ryan callahan. its even crazier the fact that he can even have an effect like that.
thank you jaromir jagr for the 4 very short,yet brilliant years you were here. i thought out of the big name sather guys acquired to that point, that this was going to be the worst one of them all. he was acquired for nothing(as usual sather)and proved many in the hockey world all wrong about himself declining in skill bc of age and desire. he was here and saw the last of the dark ages that was dead only to resurrect the rangers and our fanbase from the dead. sorry for the length of this post, its a discussion i've been having with my friends who are fans.
heres to #30 who made us all fall in love from day 1 being the player that he is and still i think is not quite completely done devloping. he is the new york rangers plain and simple. its been a pleasure to watch himset,break, and shatter records along the way, but its going to be even better the rest of the way. i think he is very highly likely to be a lifelong ranger which is sweet
was gonna post this in the pre game thread but felt it would be better in it's own thread as the whole post isn't really about tonights game.there is appreciation for the king as always too.
i had a feeling sellin this game in sept would come back to bite me in the a**, im beyond pumped up after tonights big win and we are gonna try to get seats up in the west balcony. i have been wanting to see a game up there since i stepped foot up there. if not 3's or 4's will have to do. tonights game is gonna be real emotionial,physical, and exciting game.this time #68 JJ will be in the lineup to make his return to MSG, i cannot wait to give him the standing o he absolutely without a doubt that he deserves.
back in early oct 2005 before the new era in the league and as us well, before a game was played i just stared at the roster and thought this team was going to be in the bottom 5 for atleast 2 years. i was 16 at the time, from what i remember the team looked like it was put together within 72 hours. no name players on defense and forward lines. top 2 lines were all aging stars or ? marks (shanny,straka,nylander,rucinsky,naslund, jagr etc). kevin weekes was solid or slighty better than avg goaltender who would have had to move mountains. some rookie named henrik was the backup, i knew nothing of him. we started the season great that year and kept it up consistently to my suprise and many others. weekes was playing real well for us at the time and jagr looked like the one that played in pittsburgh. well weekes gets hurt and we thought it was all over early in the season meanwhile sitting in 1st place. in comes the rookie henrik lundqvist and well u know the rest is history and never looked back. #68's magnificent season kept along his pace towards most goals in a seasons for rangers rw among other records. just like the rangers should have won the division by leading the whole year except ******** the bed the past 2 or 3 weeks, jagr SHOULD have beaten that soft bimbo thornton. he also lost out on the RR trophy to a guy thats in the minors now probably. i was mad when jagr didnt get it by like 2 maybe 3 points as well as trailing by a couple of goals at most. that was the best season i have ever seen a rangers player have.
jagr and henrik catapulted this franchise as well us all of diehard weary,battered and beaten down fanbase to instant respectability again. even though we had some old guys on the squad that year, it wasnt the previous era where smith brought in old aging and underachieving stars where he did basically what the devils are doing to themselves now. which chooses to live and die by hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for the last time with that group. he was fired after missing playoffs 3 straight years as the team regressed each year after 97 playoffs. smith left us with an old team and nothing in the minors. as we know sather made it worse.
so basically i just wanna show my never dying thankful appreciation for jagr, although he is a flyer and this is the first and last time i will ever give one to a flyers player lol. he lead us to 3 straight playoffs without really any supporting cast.i loved when jagr would draw 2 sometimes even 3 men on him trying to get him off the puck/contain him. usually that opened up the space for everybody else to score. henrik was just an instant star before the first period ever ended in his first start. since i have been watching in 94, maybe 3 goalies or 4 tops if that many at all have ever in this league come storming out of the gates like lundquist did. it was amazing he was setting and breaking nhl and ranger records, rookie ones as too.all he did at the time was win 30 plus that year and ofcourse won the gold medal with sweeden. only patrick roy, brodeur, maybe hasek or belfour? i know belfour had a great start toi his career. i said it since the olympics in 06 and i will stand by it, i always thought to myself that THIS is the guy that is going to win us our next cup.he also hasnt won a vezina which is crazy thinking about it. he should have atleast 1 or even 2 now. i said then hell win us our next cup bc of how great and established he was in international hockey already and proved it nationally that february and also bc he was 23 and i knew the rangers werent letting him go bc hes the real deal. that guy has been worth his 6.875 mill a year plus all 39 million of reddens deal as well. by that i mean that money shoulda went to hank for just june,july,and august. thats just a thank you because of who and what he has done and continues to do for us.
so now thinking back, where do you think we would be right now if henrik lundquist was really just the 9th rounder and never became who he was? same goes for jagr, what if we got capitals version instead of the penguins one? i think if we never had henrik, the whole organization would look very diff today. when you draft a goalie who becomes an immediate elite top 5 stud goalie like hank changes the way the team wants to do in the futre (draft,trades,development etc). we easily would have been one of the worst 5 or 10 teams for the first 3/4 years maybe even 5. it could have happened very,very easily. i realize when you have a hank or a rinne, goaltenders like that easily steal around or about 10 wins a year. especially hank we see him do it every year. since we have hank i think he alone saved this team 3-4 years of development time. god we are so damn lucky to have this man! i dont know if its just me but when im watching on tv or at the game it somehow seems that you can feel the emotion and burning desire to win through the tv or feel it flow through you at the game. im 95% sure i have never felt that from another player, considering the fact that we have a 10 tool hockey player in ryan callahan. its even crazier the fact that he can even have an effect like that.
thank you jaromir jagr for the 4 very short,yet brilliant years you were here. i thought out of the big name sather guys acquired to that point, that this was going to be the worst one of them all. he was acquired for nothing(as usual sather)and proved many in the hockey world all wrong about himself declining in skill bc of age and desire. he was here and saw the last of the dark ages that was dead only to resurrect the rangers and our fanbase from the dead. sorry for the length of this post, its a discussion i've been having with my friends who are fans.
heres to #30 who made us all fall in love from day 1 being the player that he is and still i think is not quite completely done devloping. he is the new york rangers plain and simple. its been a pleasure to watch himset,break, and shatter records along the way, but its going to be even better the rest of the way. i think he is very highly likely to be a lifelong ranger which is sweet
Naslund wasn't signed until Jagr left in the summer of 2008 (essentially replacing his spot on the team). Shanahan didn't come to NY until 2006-2007, which stunted Prucha in his sophomore season on Broadway.
This whole Jagr lovefest is a bit over dramatic imo. He made the Rangers into a playoff team, that's all. Some people act as if we accomplished something with him here, and we should retire his jersey. The bottom line is Jagr and Lundqvist for that matter made Rangers' hockey watchable again, that's all
Naslund wasn't signed until Jagr left in the summer of 2008 (essentially replacing his spot on the team). Shanahan didn't come to NY until 2006-2007, which stunted Prucha in his sophomore season on Broadway.
The last point is debatable. I think Prucha was essentially a fluke.
The last point is debatable. I think Prucha was essentially a fluke.
prucha went to the net and got dirty goals. everyone was so focused on jagr and nylander that Prucha just kept darting to the net to tuck in rebounds. he was a smart player who played really hard. however the big hits took their toll, he wasnt going to the front as often as he used to, and it hurt his game.
The last point is debatable. I think Prucha was essentially a fluke.
Debatable to an extent. Truth is, he scored 30 goals getting PP time that was whisked away with the injection of Brendan to the team. Confidence is key in the beginning of a player's career in the hardest league in the world. You can't say he wasn't stunted one way or another by the addition.
This whole Jagr lovefest is a bit over dramatic imo. He made the Rangers into a playoff team, that's all. Some people act as if we accomplished something with him here, and we should retire his jersey. The bottom line is Jagr and Lundqvist for that matter made Rangers' hockey watchable again, that's all
Haven't seen anyone calling for 68 to be raised to the rafters, but after 7 years of dismal hockey and no playoffs he gave Ranger fans excitement and a reason to hope.
The Rangers have yet to get to the 2nd round since he left, that's certainly not all because of Jagr but the fact remains while here his team got to the 2nd round twice, and aside from the Gomez series when he screwed up his arm/shoulder he was a PPG player in the playoffs for this team.
A nice cheer when he hits the ice and a brief cheer for his 1st shift, after that he's just another Flyer.
Debatable to an extent. Truth is, he scored 30 goals getting PP time that was whisked away with the injection of Brendan to the team. Confidence is key in the beginning of a player's career in the hardest league in the world. You can't say he wasn't stunted one way or another by the addition.
Yet he never did anything after he left the Rangers....
Never liked Jagr before he came to the Rangers. Begrudgingly appreciated what he did here. Didn't really care when he left. Find it interesting that he seems happier with the Flyers (more smiles and his stupid salutes) than he ever did here.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. The lockout was the best thing that ever happened to the Rangers. Cause it forced them to rebuild. No one expected the team to have the success it had coming out of the lockout, no one expected Henke to develop into a franchise goaltender (that, if you remember, was supposed to be Al Montoya). Putting Jagr together with Nylander and Straka was supposed to "keep him happy" just so he would stay here and be productive (he was thinking about staying in Europe at the time). And after unexpected success, Sather STILL attempted to vault this team from a surprise playoff team to a cup contender by overpaying for more "not worth it" players. The cap may or may not have forced him to stop just short of that.
Something changed after that playoff loss to the Capitals back in 08-09. Cause while Sather WAS still trying vault the team to the promised land, he also refused to part with pretty much ANY youth. The development of Henke, Cally, Staal and Duby I think played a key role in this. But after that season, and Torts being brought in, this team committed pretty much 100% to developing a young core. And the results have been astounding. Now, with that core in place, having success, and Richards having the success he has had thus far, with Gabs back to being an elite sniper, and with Henke ENTERING his prime, this team is about to explode. We are a few players away from being a serious, serious threat!!
I don't know if we will win tonight, and take over 1st (I actually have a feeling we won't), but no matter what, I love this team and cannot wait to see where they go in the next 3 years!
This whole Jagr lovefest is a bit over dramatic imo. He made the Rangers into a playoff team, that's all. Some people act as if we accomplished something with him here, and we should retire his jersey. The bottom line is Jagr and Lundqvist for that matter made Rangers' hockey watchable again, that's all
yea why should people like him, he only helped an original 6 team get back to the playoffs after 7 years and in doing so became our captain and our all time leading scorer in a single season with a performance that should have won him the mvp. no big deal.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. The lockout was the best thing that ever happened to the Rangers. Cause it forced them to rebuild. No one expected the team to have the success it had coming out of the lockout, no one expected Henke to develop into a franchise goaltender (that, if you remember, was supposed to be Al Montoya). Putting Jagr together with Nylander and Straka was supposed to "keep him happy" just so he would stay here and be productive (he was thinking about staying in Europe at the time). And after unexpected success, Sather STILL attempted to vault this team from a surprise playoff team to a cup contender by overpaying for more "not worth it" players. The cap may or may not have forced him to stop just short of that.
Just a nit. The salary cap forced Sather to build from within. The Great Purge happened before the lockout — but they also made the trade for Jagr (which, while a no brainer move in hindsight for what they gave up, is not the move a rebuilding team makes).[/QUOTE]
yea why should people like him, he only helped an original 6 team get back to the playoffs after 7 years and in doing so became our captain and our all time leading scorer in a single season with a performance that should have won him the mvp. no big deal.
And then what?
The guy is what he's always been — a mercenary with a short shelf life in any particular situation.
Never liked Jagr before he came to the Rangers. Begrudgingly appreciated what he did here. Didn't really care when he left. Find it interesting that he seems happier with the Flyers (more smiles and his stupid salutes) than he ever did here.
i don't know how anyone can say they were fine when jagr left. he was the best player in the league during those playoffs and we replaced him with naslund. how could anyone be fine with that?
i don't know how anyone can say they were fine when jagr left. he was the best player in the league during those playoffs and we replaced him with naslund. how could anyone be fine with that?
Who said they were fine? They made a clear decision to move on without him. Sather entrusted the to the wrong guys. But at the end of the day, Jagr was a guy who didn't consistently play hard (he admitted as much) and had a declining production. You can't save yourself for the playoffs when there's no guarantee you'll get in.
Yet he never did anything after he left the Rangers....
He may have never been as talented as the goal production he showed in his rookie campaign. Honestly though, you don't think a player can be damaged because of stunted growth in their beginning stages of professional hockey? What happened afterwards could be a direct result of it, it's all speculation, it's not an exact science. Though, that's not what I am talking about.
He may have never been as talented as the goal production he showed in his rookie campaign. Honestly though, you don't think a player can be damaged because of stunted growth in their beginning stages of professional hockey? What happened afterwards could be a direct result of it, it's all speculation, it's not an exact science. Though, that's not what I am talking about.
I think the big hits took and the fact that he was never a big goal scorer in his career save his first two years here are more of an indication of Prucha than bringing Shanny retarded his progress.
I think the idea of Prucha was better than Prucha. Remember the "Prucha is better than Crosby" threads?
