To Hell with the Naysayers, Being a Ranger Fan is Fun Again

If you’re a serious fan you always take the bad before the good. Jim you’re losing your touch.

then i get mad, sulk, and drink heavily

btw, jim, you’re on facebook? i thought that was for the younger crowd (i.e. my age and under)

I like this team too and once Gaborik gets going and Prospal comes back we will be even better

On this post. The rebuild started the year they let Jagr walk. I don’t think the Rangers will ever allow themselves to go through a full rebuild and honestly I don’t think their core of players would unintentionally play bad enough for them to sink lottery status, but that was a pretty hefty regime change after letting a couple of legends go (Jagr and Shanny) and purging some of their older compatriots like Straka.

Obviously moves like signing Redden showed that old habits die hard but I think they were taking a cautious approach to infusing the team with more youth. I don’t know how much input Renney had into some of the personnel decisions and whether he wanted a more gradual rebuild, but I have a strong feeling that the big youth movement since the coaching change was made was heavily influenced by Torts.

It’s also a delight that while it looks as if the Rangers are in a stepping stone year, meaning somewhere in between a rebuilding year and a contending one, that their neighbors to the East and West are having their own nightmare seasons. I think it’s also a good thing that the Pens and Flyers are strong this year, because that pushes the Rangers to improve. As great as it would be for the team to be in first place, doing so amongst weak competition will probably inflate the actual accomplishments of the team (such as the Caps of the past few years). Having Cup contenders in your division can only force your team to be better, and you have to hope that even if things don’t end up where we’d all like them to this year, they stay the course and keep adding in home grown talent and look toward established/premium talent only when they’re close.

the title of the article says it all…the rangers are playing fun hockey…to hell with the playoffs or bust fans…lets keep this feeling alive

The Rangers have been very enjoyable to watch this season, and they’re very easy to root for.

The Rangers are definitely moving in the right direction. It’s nice to finally have an outlook of improvement versus pure aging.

Now if they could only sign some good cheap players who hit like Garnet Exelby and John Erskine while getting rid of those roster albatrosses Marc Staal and Brandon Dubinsky then we’d be talking!

GREAT POST, Jim you hit the jackpot on this one

I don’t know what will happen in postseason, but I agree that this team is fun to watch and easy to root for. They are far from pretty or perfect but they grind out wins and don’t give up.
if they just keep working hard and stick to their philosophy they could be the kind of team that surprises in the postseason, though I agree we’re a couple of years away from contending. I do think we’ll be in the top 8 come April.

I’d really like to see us beat every top 8 team in our Conference at least once, convincingly. That leaves the Thrashers, Flyers, Habs and Tampa. I would do a lot for team confidence heading into the spring.

I haven’t read any of the comments yet Jim, but I do want to say that ALL of the signs were on the wall for this last year. The change of tactics began mid-way through the season and showed steady improvement. All of our kids were working hard and showed promise. Sather’s patience and moves were all geared for this product.

I must say that it really, really bothered me how lots of folks failed to see how hard working our core was. And the idea of not caring whether your club, in any sports, makes the playoffs is just plain weird. We all agreed on Redden and this year simply confirms what a drag he was on the attitude and playing style of the club. At the beginning of the season I was picking the Rangers to finish 10-15 games over .500. I based this on how they skated against the elite clubs last season, in particular, how well the new style matched up against the Penguins and Flyers.

d

I’m sure you know this, but I wouldn’t take too seriously what guys say on Facebook…it’s well known a lot of idiots reside there. And if you think they’re bad, try checking out the ones on the Yankee page. COMPLETE morons….