Brian Leetch was at Rockefeller Plaza tonight for a Skate With the Greats function for the benefit of the Ronald McDonald House of New York. With him were former teammates Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Mike Richter, Jeff Beukeboom, Stephane Matteau, Brian Mullen, Tie Domi, and Darren Langdon. Leetch and a few others took some time before the event to talk about his career, which will be honored at the Garden Thursday night when his number 2 is retired and raised to the rafters in a ceremony that will start at 6:30.
Leetch spoke about virtually every aspect of his career -- being drafted by the Rangers, playing in the 1988 Olympics, his first game as a Ranger, Mark Messier's arrival in New York, winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, the Cinderella playoff season of 1997, the bitter disappointment of the seasons that followed, his captaincy, his trade to Toronto, his decision to retire, and of course all the great people he met along the way and his for the city he played in. We're going to save most of it for the next issue of Blueshirt Bulletin, but here is a sampling of some of the things he and his former teammates said.
"I was able to sit down and get some rough outlines to try and gather my thoughts," he said of his preparation for the banner raising ceremony, one which everyone thought might be like pulling teeth for the normally taciturn Leetch. "I had an idea of what I want to say, like I do now. Iit's just, 'Can I get it out the way I want to, say the thank yous the way I want to?' I thought it was going to be more nervous anticipation building up to it, something that I was looking forward to getting over with. But I got such a positive reaction from all my friends, people I run into -- Ranger fans -- about how they're looking forward to it. That gets me excited. I'm excited for the night, I'm excited for everyone to have a good time. I just don't want to mess it up."
Just as Messier said at his recent Hall of Fame induction, Leetch dwells on the people who helped get him there, something you can expect to hear from him in his Garden speech. "This night is about all of those teammates, all of those people from your parents to your friends," he said. "That's the beauty of the whole thing, to be able to share that -- you don't get to this position in a team sport [by yourself]. That's the part that makes me feel good, to be able to go through that and recognize some people and share the experience with a lot of people."
Leetch was asked about being traded away from New York and not getting a chance to finish his career here. He said that in the end it was his own decision. "Tom Renney called me two years ago and expressed that he thought I'd be a perfect fit for the blue line, that I could bring a lot to the team, that I could still play," he said. "It was up to me whether I wanted to end my career in New York, and I just decided at the time that that was enough." Years of playoff disappointments had worn him down, age and injury were catching up to him, and family was becoming more important to him -- he decided that if he could not give 100% to hockey, that he had to hang up his skates.
Back at the other end of his NHL career, at the start, there was his first day with the Rangers, fresh from the Calgary Olympics where he represented the USA in a disappointing seventh place finish. "There was a note to knock on Mark Hardy's door to set up a ride," he said of his initial arrival at the Armonk Hotel after flying in from Calgary. "He's looking at me, and I'm like, 'Hey Mark, I'm Brian Leetch, I just came from the Olympic team.' He's like, 'Oh, come on in, I just got traded here myself, I don't know what's going on.' I said, 'We've gotta get to practice tomorrow.' He's like, 'Oh yeah, Marcel Dionne's gonna pick us up tomorrow.'
"So I'm in Marcel's car, we go to practice. Chris Nilan's coming in and he's giving me a hard time for finishing in seventh place. All the Canadians are giving him trouble, he's always going back and forth with Tomas Sandstrom, he's like, 'These Swedes, you gotta beat the Swedes, why didn't you beat the Swedes?' And I don't know anybody on the team. We play the first game, and I can hear the crowd chanting, 'USA! USA!' First drop of the puck, Chris Nilan gets in a fight, and they wrestle from the wing right to the boards in front of me -- I start laughing. Jeez, I'm in the NHL -- this is crazy! The Garden's chanting, 'USA!', Chris Nilan's fighting two seconds into my first game -- this is nuts!"
Messier remembers his first day as a Ranger when it was Leetch picking him up to take him to his first practice. "I was staying in the city, first game that I was here," he recalled. "I was riding with him to practice. Sometimes, not a lot of words need to be said. It became very evident to me very quickly what kind of commitment Brian had. That's what you're really looking for, someone to grab an oar and start paddling in the same direction as you are, and everybody else gets swept up into it. He was the guy. Nobody did it better."
Leetch recalled how he and Richter, the Rangers' goalie for so many of his games here, would joke around on the ice to keep each other loose. "We used to say stupid stuff to each other, we used to laugh," he said. "I remember I gave the puck away to Brett Hull one time in the slot -- I was trying to ice it up the middle and he got it, rips it right off the crossbar. He [Richter] goes to me, 'I had it, Leetchie, I had it.' And I said, 'I know you did Mike.' We used to do stuff like that, keep things light in front of the net -- he's a goofy kid anyway, it helped me to lighten up."
"Brian was a guy, I would just shake my head," Richter said. "He knew where he was gonna park and why -- 'Thursday's delivery day, so you have to park over on the side.' I'm just happy to have pants on going to practice, and he knows where he's gonna park and why. And that's the way he was on the ice. He really knew what he could do, what he couldn't do, and anticipated so well. Nobody can prepare themselves for the kind of night like he's going to have tomorrow. But it's really important, particularly for a guy like Brian, who's publicly acknowledged for all that he brought to this organization, to this city, and even honestly to this game -- one of the best who's ever put on skates at his position. He deserves every bit of credit he gets for a career that is remarkable. I certainly benefitted a lot from his skill. He was out there covering my ass an awful lot. Only half of my jersey would be going up there if it wasn't for that guy."
Graves remembers Leetch from a time before anyone else knew him. "We played against each other in an under-18 tournament in Colorado Springs, a two-game tournament," he said, guessing that it took place in 1985, when the two were 16 or 17. "A lot of times you look back, you see a guy's name, you say, 'Oh, I didn't realize I played against him when I was 14 or 15.' I'll never forget saying to him, 'Good luck,' when we were shaking hands at the end of the tournament. We definitely controlled the series -- Canada had a good team -- but he was far and away the best player on the ice. I'll never forget that. I remember Brian Leetch -- I was tracking him that year."
Leetch, a big all-around sports fan known for his love of the Yankees, was asked for a prediction for the upcoming Super Bowl, but he declined to give one. "I love being around sports history, and the Patriots are going for that," he said. "But I also know watching the Giants play, how playing well at the right time, believing in your team -- I have no idea what's going to happen in this game, no idea, I really don't. You'd think the way the Patriots' season's been -- but that game the Giants played against them, that was one of the most exciting games of the year. That's why they play them, that's why you watch them -- anything can happen."
Messier was not as reluctant to make a blod prediciton. "24-21," he said, in the Giants' favor. Asked if he was willing to guarantee that result, he said, "No, because I can't do anything about it. The Giants are playing as well as anyone going into the playoffs, and every team strives to be peaking at that time." But we're not here to talk about football, we're here to talk about hockey, Ranger hockey. Tomorrow night, another piece of history will be made at the Garden when Brian Leetch is forever immortalized with his number 2 placed alongside the other leaders of the Rangers' 1994 Stanley Cup team -- Messier's number 11 and Richter's number 35, as well as of course Rod Gilbert and Eddie Giacomin.
To read more about Leetch, see the Daily News -- an expert panel declaring him the best Ranger ever, and John Dellapina's top ten Leetch moments -- plus the Journal News here, here, and here, Newsday, Times here and here, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, AP, NY Sports Day, NYR.com, and NHL.com. Video of Leetch and Messier from last night can be found at MSG.com here and here. Mitch Beck lauds Leetch and provides a copy of his Blueshirt Bulletin article from last year at Howlings. Don't forget the early start time of 6:30, set by the league so that TV broadcasts can start promptly at 8:08 -- the Rangers will be fined if the ceremony runs overtime.
There is a game tonight, by the way, as the Rangers take on Atlanta again. But Ilya Kovalchuk is going to have to miss it, suspended for the hit on Michal Rozsival that got him kicked out of the last match in the last minute of the first period (see Slap Shot and the AJC). Other game previews can be found at Newsday, MSG.com here and here, NYR.com, and Rangerland. The Denver Post reports that the Rangers were scouting the Avs-Preds game the other night even though they don't play either team the rest of the season. Miika Wiikman pitched a 1-0 shutout for the Wolf Pack last night -- see the Courant and Howlings. Prospect Park has a mid-week update.
Larry Brooks of the Post spoke to Jaromir Jagr about his present and future, with Jagr saying things that are no surprise to those who know him but which might surprise those quick to judge him with false assumptions. We don't want to reproduce too many quotes because we want you to read the article, but here are some snippets: "I would like to continue playing next year in New York, no other place, but we have to do good this year because why keep someone around if they don't do it?... Our record so far is kind of my fault, too. I take responsibility... When there are times that I think I get too much of the blame, there are also times when I get too much of the credit. That's for sure. I don't complain when people say all the good things, so I can't complain when people say bad things. I just wish if they want to say bad things, say I'm playing bad, not that I don't care."
[The image shown is an excerpt from the upcoming issue of Blueshirt Bulletin, with a photo courtesy of Getty Images, accompanying a story written by Blueshirt Bulletin reader Peter Hasapis about his encounter with Brian Leetch.]
UPDATE: Marek Malik was absent from the rink this morning, along with his equipment. Tom Renney insists he is still a Ranger and his status is an "internal matter." No further news beyond that, except for the expectation that Malik will not play tonight and Paul Mara will return to the ice. Thanks to Rangers Report and Blue Notes for the update from the morning skate.