Bright Spots From the Dark Ages

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Honestly?

The "country club vets" were mostly good.

Lindros was very good here. Fleury was very good here. Bure was excellent until his remaining good knee fell off. MacLean was solid. The Czech line was the tits. Jaromir Jagr is part of that group and he's one of the best Rangers ever.

The Dark Ages happened because we had literally no prospects and were the worst drafting team in hockey under Smith. A lot was made over the Malhotra pick but look beyond that. There was nobody else. When I say we were developing NOTHING, I mean actually close to nothing.

I see parallels to now (although the org is much better across the board) where Zibanejad and Panarin are on pace for 88 points, Kreider is on pace for 37 goals, and all of our problems are blamed on "the vets" and their "country club atmosphere." Meanwhile, our top ten picks can't make a single impact.

We had a few good picks we just traded them all away

 

[IceColdOx]

We had a few good picks we just traded them all away

I'll argue the hard cap was the greatest thing for us. Forced us to actually draft and try to develop. I wonder if there's some sort of forward development issue in recent years. Seems we don't get much right in that department other than Fil.

 

[CasusBelli]

FLY
Bure
Malik shootout goal

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Bure

Those 20 games were lit

 

[RangersFan1994]

FLY
Bure
Malik shootout goal

Malik shootout goal was after the dark ages, first year in the playoffs. Same season Shanahan fought Brashear I believe.

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

The FLY line and getting to witness Bure as a Ranger, even for a short time, man was he a special and exciting player. Oh and the Fedor Tyutin hip checks.

I remember Tomas Kloucek being another one who would lay some devastating hits. I remember being at a game as a kid in the early 2000s (I believe vs Montreal?) where he was in the box and right as his penalty time was up a guy on the other team was skating right in front of the box with the puck and Kloucek launched himself out of the box into the guy.

The Dark Ages sucked but they were my formative years as a fan (born in '89) for the most part so I have a very soft spot and nostalgia for that era. I was obsessed with those teams, had the yearbooks, every hockey news, stat books every season. Would always read the box scores and standings every day in Newsday. My family had season tickets from 1996-2010 so I went to tons of games back then (my dad stopped getting them after a couple years of my brother and I being away for college and him just having to sell them all).

 

[SnowblindNYR]

FLY
Bure
Malik shootout goal

Malik shootout goal was not during the dark ages. It was 05-06.

Malik shootout goal was after the dark ages, first year in the playoffs. Same season Shanahan fought Brashear I believe.

Shanny joined the team in 06-07.

 

[Peltz]

You knew the dark ages were over when we signed the greatest player of all time:

Wade Redden