So it is official.Don Maloney has signed on as the GM for one of the worst teams in the NHL - the Phoenix Coyotes -- straight from the Ranger Glen Sather Assistant to running a bad team.
I see this as good news for Phoenix and tough news for the Blueshirt Ranger locker room. Maloney was well-liked by the players and was a huge supporter of certain individuals. My boy Prucha may have something to worry about come trade time, as Maloney was a huge supporter of his level of play over the last couple of seasons -- such that it kept him on the ice, despite Sather's feelings of his value on the team.
With such a vacancy in the Ranger brass, I smell another return of Mark Messier - his third Captain-ship, or as Sather will never give up his job -- the second stepping-stone in removing Sather as the GM of his favorite team. If such a thing were to happen, I have mixed feelings about it -- as I am nostalgic as a Ranger fan (yes, I have the Jersey -- a great present from my better half), evident with his first announcement of his intentions of becoming GM of the Rangers, I get the feeling he is a "talker before thinker." Just because he says it, doesn't mean it will be.
In '94, his pronouncement to the press during the playoffs that 'We Will Win!" after losing three straight against Jersey was what every player would be thinking -- what every Captain would say to the press in the playoff series to the Cup. He had the responsibility to announce this to his team, to the media and to the world of hockey. If they didn't win, people would not have taken him as seriously from that point on.
So I see this as a window for M&M -- The Dark Ranger is wary, but willing to take on the dark forces of Glen that inhabit the Garden!
tdr
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