The Rangers reaffirmed their message to fans earlier this week in a pair of fan forums held at Madison Square Garden with Donny and Renney, hosted by Sam and JD. “Future Blue” was the theme, and if they don’t really mean it this time, they ought to win Oscars for this performance. Read about it at the Ranger web site, watch it when they air it on MSGN, and enjoy our exclusive fan photos from inside the forum, and from MSG ice, where fans got to skate as part of the package for participating.
The photos come courtesy of Chado’ [pictured left with Tom Renney], who is affiliated with the emerging Brooklyn-based modern rock outfit Underwhelmed (as modern rock fans dating back to the heyday of WLIR, we were duly whelmed by the three cuts Chado’ sent us). The band play hockey and favor the Rangers -- look for a possible piece on them in a future issue of Blueshirt Bulletin. That’s Chado’s pal Jojo fulfilling a lifelong dream at center ice in the third photo. [Click on the thumbnails to enlarge]
Just how well is the NHL winning the PR war over the PA? Today, for the first time, we learn that the myth of the greedy player, unsatisfied with a cap-based average salary of $1.3 million, is actually skewed dramatically upward. Because of a few top- heavy contracts (like our own Jagr and Holik), a more relevant midpoint is median salary –- the line between the top 50% and bottom 50% of earners. In his report on the PA-agent meeting, the ever-illuminating Larry Brooks (the only reporter to report this deeply into the meeting) quotes a median income figure of under $500,000, a decline of more than 50% for the lower half of the player body.
As expected, the NHL cannot and will not conduct the next entry draft until a new CBA is in place.
The West Side Stadium war that we covered in our current issue of Blueshirt Bulletin heated up again this week with a major war of words between Mayor Bloomberg and Cablevision. CEO Jim Dolan took out a full page ad in the Daily News (which we have a hard copy of but cannot link to) to question the city’s smoke and mirrors financing plan for the stadium that would compete with MSG for events.
Dolan’s claims may actually be valid, if you go by our old tried and true litmus test to see if the response addresses the issues or attacks the messenger. The mayor’s response is definitely the latter: "Should we reward the cable company that charges the highest subscriber rates in the country, took the Yankees off the air and is trying to do the same to the Mets, has run the Knicks and Rangers into the ground, and now wants to end our chances at hosting the Olympics, by changing the city charter to protect their monopoly?"
A more direct response to Cablevision’s sudden concern over the use of tax dollars came two days later when Bloomberg threatened the Garden’s $11.7 million annual real estate tax abatement (a figure which, by the way, doesn’t figure into anyone’s calculation of the Rangers’ profit and loss statement). Today, a Times column sums up the recent shenanigans by heaping scorn upon scorn upon Dolan. “Dolan has yet to throw cash at the competition and win,” they remind us, as if we Ranger fans did not already know this all too well.
Also in our current issue, we connect a few dots between players, as GM Glen Sather seems so fond of doing. Two of those dots have been reconnected in Hartford with the recall of Jake Taylor from Charlotte. Bruce Berlet reports on how he and his childhood buddy and defense partner Bryce Lampman feel about playing together for the first time since the Rangers drafted Lampman in 2001.
ESPN’s series on The Hockey News’s great debates includes best captain ever. The writers, to no one’s surprise, chose the unchallenged best leader ever, Mark Messier. Cementhead fans chose Steve Yzerman ahead of Messier. These are presumably not the same fans who at FoxSports chose Mike Bossy as best right wing ever over Gordie Howe, considering the teams involved.
Prospect update for today at NYR.com -- big news: Bahensky ejected!
Taking fantasy hockey to another level, NHL.com and SimLeagues 2.0 are simulating playoff series among the top 32 Stanley Cup winners of all time. Sadly, the 30th seeded 1927-28 Rangers lost to the third-ranked 1981-82 Islanders. “With only two centers, parts of three lines and two defense pairings,” reports NHL.com, “Lester Patrick's Rangers were no match for [the] Islanders' four lines [and] deep defense.” On December 10th, Mark Messier’s 1993-94 Rangers (#20) take on Gordie Howe’s 1954-55 Red Wings (#13).
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