BOSTON – No one will ever be able to diminish the accomplishments of this particular Ranger team, the most significant of which was its ability to accomplish the primary mission of restoring credibility and integrity to a franchise that had been a pro sports punch line for more than seven calendar years.
These Rangers will be uniquely remembered and forever known as one of the most admirable pro teams to ever play in New York, with their melting pot locker room, multi-cultural environment, passion, skill, work ethic and commitment to one another, the sweater and the people in the seats who pay the expensive freight.
This team has built a foundation for the future just the way Emile Francis’ 1966-67 team did to end a dark period in which the Rangers had qualified for the playoffs once in eight years. Different era, different approaches, but both laid foundations. Both teams – including management and the coaching staffs – restored pride and professionalism to the operation.
But the work isn’t over for the 2005-06 Rangers. Indeed, the heavy lifting is about to begin. The Rangers entered the regular season fresh, confident, and with an outside stimulus provided by the predictions that universally forecast the club as a sure thing 2006 lottery team.
Now, as they seek to claim a division championship that would give them the home-ice advantage they seem to believe so important, they more often than not appear fatigued; good enough and resourceful enough to win games, but without the crispness, confidence or swagger with which they played preceding the Olympics.
If the team received a jolt of incentive from the outside at the start of the regular season, now is the time for Tom Renney to provide a jolt from the inside – or it will when it’s time to start the playoffs.
When it’s time to start the playoffs, it will be time for Renney to name Jaromir Jagr team captain, to give him the letter he has earned. If King Henrik is the face behind the mask, Jagr is the face of the franchise. Giving Jagr the “C” now gives a voice to that face.
Giving Jagr the “C” now is not only the ultimate sign of respect, it gives Jagr’s teammates something – and someone – tangible to rally around as they seek to prove that their mission to capture the Stanley Cup is no more impossible than the one they’ve already achieved during the regular season.
It gives the Rangers the chance to rally around and behind the league’s pre-eminent player; it gives the team a tangible, visible unifier. It gives the head coach a captain with whom to interact throughout the course of the postseason, when off-ice, time-management decisions are required to be made quickly.
Renney is a new-age thinker with old-school values. He’s made it clear that he would have preferred this year’s team to have had a captain. Indeed, it would be no surprise whatsoever to discover that Renney has at least considered the option – pending agreement from Jagr, of course.
The Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989 without a captain, and the Bruins won in both 1970 and 1972 without a player wearing the “C.” It could be argued that the Ranger triumvirate of alternates in Jagr, Steve Rucchin and Darius Kasparaitis has done the job, and change could be risky.
There’s risk, too, of creating an unnecessary issue regarding Jagr and the captaincy next season. On the first day of training camp last September, the day Mark Messier announced his retirement, Jagr not only said he believed the Rangers would make the playoffs, he said that he would prefer not to be team captain. He said he believed a North American was better suited to filling the position’s primary off-ice responsibility of interacting with the fans.
But this would not be about next season (though it is virtually impossible to envision anyone else wearing the “C” as long as Jagr remains a Ranger). It is not about communicating with the fans, though his stick and his smile have done his talking pretty well for him.
It is about the playoffs. It is about giving the team leader the letter he has surely earned. It is about providing a high-octane energy boost to the club as it enters the obstacle course.
It is about giving the Rangers their best chance to accomplish their next mission, as well.