It’s last call for the Rangers, down six points on eighth-place Montreal, with three fewer games to play than three of the teams they are chasing for two spots, but presented with gotta-have-em games last night at the Garden against Pittsburgh, then tonight in Buffalo.
So Brian Leetch figures it’s last call for him, too, to return after missing 31 games with the deepest ankle-bone bruise in sports history. He was back in the lineup last evening, a sight for eyes almost as sore as his ankle.
“No reason to wait any more,” Leetch said yesterday morning. “Of course, it’s still sore and I expect that it will be for some time. That’s reality and I accept it.
“But the last two days of practice it didn’t get any worse or more sore as practice went on, which is what had been happening.
“I’m interested to see how it reacts and how things go through a full game of pushing it, leaning on people, doing all the things you have to do.”
If the fans are going to stay interested in the Rangers’ chances, their 16-year veteran is going to have do all those things, never mind the rust on both he and the Rangers’ playoff express, which has practically ground to a halt. Leetch wasn’t having the best of seasons when he went out on December 3 – in fact, he hasn’t really had one of those in a while – but it is absurd to think he isn’t a worthwhile addition.
We’ll know if the Rangers have any shot at all after this 5-games-in-10 nights trip that after tonight’s contest doesn’t have a soft spot on it. The schedule hardly represents an opportunity for Leetch to ease back in, but any other options have been exhausted by a 3-6-1 stretch.
The Rangers got their first win with Glen Sather behind the bench Wednesday night in Florida, two days after getting last night’s opponent’s second-best player, Alexei Kovalev, in a lopsided deal.
Even if five years out of the playoffs, seriously threatening to turn ito six has left you thinking that adding Kovalev to Pavel Bure and Eric Lindros and Bobby Holik is adding one more general to a team that doesn’t have an infantry, it was still an utter no-brainer to obtain an asset like Kovalev for four players the Rangers are never going to miss.
Kovalev, still prone to overhandling the puck, still capable of disappearing into a fog, is not the easiest fit on a line, but he does bring some offensive skill that for all the attention on the Rangers’ defensive problems, this team still badly needs, especially with Bure out.
Ditto on defense, with Vladimir Malakhov still nursing a bad back, Sylvain Lefebvre out so long nobody even remembers him, and Joel Bouchard gone in the Pittsburgh trade. To the rescue hobbles Leetch, keeping the hopes flickering with 23 games to play.