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Bright Spots From the Dark Ages

Fitzy said:
Mike Dunham's hilarious 'rebound control'

One of the Czech Passe breaking the camera behind the goal with a shot

The Bure trade
The Lindros trade
The Jagr trade


NYR missed the playoffs a few of those times because of the goaltending and defensive depth, frankly. We had guys like Mironov and Malakhov on the top PP units, Karpa, Ulanov, Purinton and other garbage on defense almost every game. Richter was not playing very good hockey his last 3 seasons.
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Oh, the defense corps on those teams were hilarious.

Poor Brian Leetch.
 
markymarc1215 said:
He had a cup of coffee in 03-04 just before the purge and looked really good. Showed some offensive upside and quickly became our top prospect for the next season.


I actually had a good friend and linemate who wore that exact jersey to our Friday night pickup games. I also was a big fan of both Harvey and the jersey. We actually got a good young player in a trade for 2 underperforming vets. Just wish Harvey stayed healthy and had a bigger leash with ua.
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Wasn't his first NHL goal 3 on 5?
 
will1066 said:
The Dark Ages were also signified by the first attempt in team history at a mascot, Bobby Ranger. Instead of a costumed character, they went with a live human person, because NYC likes to keep things real. Bobby Ranger was corny and always seemed to worm his way into the personal spaces of the Rangers players. Charismatic he was not. More like creepy.



That was Nedved. I'll never forget it.
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That was part of highlight reel to start the game for years. Why did they go away from the highlight reel? I always liked it.
 
SnowblindNYR said:
That was part of highlight reel to start the game for years. Why did they go away from the highlight reel? I always liked it.
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I liked it too. Brad Park waiting for a faceoff. Richter arm pumping triumphantly. Mess jumping up and down.

People with epilepsy probably complained.
 
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The bright spot for me was seeing Wayne Gretzky come to the Rangers and finish his career. It was amazing. I was in Sec 426 then. Good ole days!

Todd Harvey was awesome. What a fun player to watch. He really brought it!

Langdon and PJ Stock were fun players to watch as well. PJ was short lived but another ball of energy. Langdon was one of the toughest guys to ever play for the Rangers. He was small fo a heavyweight but it didnt matter. That guy had balls of steel!

I was a huge Kloucek fan. Really thought he was going to be a special player. To this day I don't know of any other NYR defenseman that could lay hits like him. Maybe Beuk, but Kloucek was just an animal in that department. As his game developed into a 3/4 dman, he got injured and was never the same.

Mike York was another bright spot. You had to root for the guy. It wasn't too common then for the little guy to come into the league and produce.

Of course Jagr came in at the end there. Unlike a lot of the other superstars, Jagr didnt come too late. At the time some thought he was washed up but he found his game again and was really special to watch. Especially with Michael Nylander. Those two had amazing Chemistry.



The darkest of those times for me was actually the Czechmates. Pains me to say, as I am Czech. They were fun to watch, but when the games mattered they just never got it done. They couldn't win against the big teams in the division. As talented as they were i think they lacked that compete level that was needed to get the club over the hump.

Every year shiny new toys would come in. The John MacLeans, Kevin Stevens, Theo Fleury, Mess came back, Holy shit were getting Eric Lindros and Pavel Bure!!! The end results were always the same. Miss the playoff every season with the Roster full of talented hockey players. At one point i remember thinking maybe players just can't do it here in NY. Maybe its the city itself? Too big, too much going on. Too many distractions.

In those years, it was always the same thing. Devils emerged as a powerhouse. Elias, Gomez, Stevens, Brodeur, Arnott, Holik. We just couldn't matchup. The Caps were always good back then too. Oates and Bondra. The Bruins were also really good back then. No matter what though, out West the Wings and the Avs were stacked with talent and you knew they would be the teams to beat.
 
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Machinehead said:
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.
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Just look at how many "prospects" we called up to fill roster spots after the 03-04 purge. Heck we had to sign complete unknowns like Mike Green (no not the WSH guy, the OTHER Mike Green). Look at that roster for the last month of the season! We somehow needed to get excited about NHL showcases for Garth Murray, Lawrence Nycholat, Bryce Lampman, Layne Ulmer, Thomas Pock, Joel Bouchard, Jason MacDonald, Benoit Dusablon, and Richard Scott. I am sure there are a host of others that I missed.

Sadly, the only purge day trade that semi worked out was getting Blair Betts for Chris Simon, who may have been the least valuable of the purge day army. Not the trade you would expect to provide the most value to the franchise.
 
markymarc1215 said:
Just look at how many "prospects" we called up to fill roster spots after the 03-04 purge. Heck we had to sign complete unknowns like Mike Green (no not the WSH guy, the OTHER Mike Green). Look at that roster for the last month of the season! We somehow needed to get excited about NHL showcases for Garth Murray, Lawrence Nycholat, Bryce Lampman, Layne Ulmer, Thomas Pock, Joel Bouchard, Jason MacDonald, Benoit Dusablon, and Richard Scott. I am sure there are a host of others that I missed.

Sadly, the only purge day trade that semi worked out was getting Blair Betts for Chris Simon, who may have been the least valuable of the purge day army. Not the trade you would expect to provide the most value to the franchise.
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Browse the Let's Remember Some Guys thread for other names.

Edit: I see you've visited there.
 
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My DA Bright Spot: BARNABY HAS LAST LAUGH

Was a freshman at college, and they had this game on Rangers Rewind like at midnight or something. I knew the outcome, and I bet a drunk buddy that Barnaby would get the game winner. He scored with 21 seconds left and my friend was dumbfounded and coughed up the cash. He didn't realize that he was watching a game at fcking MIDNIGHT, assumed it was live and thought I was some sort of nostradamus. Good times. Dude makes way more than I do now though. I hope at least.
 
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markymarc1215 said:
I think if Lindros didn't miss those 10 or so games, the 01-02 team makes the playoffs. I also think the York Poti trade hindered any playoff aspirations as well.
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That and Richter going down after the Olympics and Blackburn starting the last month of games. 31 games for an 18 year old goaltender....
Wasn't that also the season where we were in pretty good shape up until xmas, then lost to the Yotes on NYE and basically didn't win again until Feb?

We had so much Olympic talent that season and still couldn't get anything done. Fluery, Lindros, Dvorak, Rucinsky (post Olympics), Mirinov, Malahkov, Leetch, York, Richter and Poti (post Olympics)
 
What I remember about those miserable years were the big trades that almost happened. Everyone thought we were getting Jagr from the Penguins. Really think he would have turned us into a playoff team overnight.

Also, Rick Carpiniello wrote a book called Nightmare on 33rd Street. It covered the team the season Messier first came back. Apparently, right before Theo checked himself in the substance abuse program, we had a deal in place for Keith Tkachuk and Nikolai Khabibulin from Arizona. Believe it was something along the lines of Fluery, Lundmark, and Mike York going the other way. Those would have been interesting trades because these were guys in their primes, that weren't damaged goods.
 
Islanders had a good coach in Laviolette. Glad they fired him before they noticed how good a coach he is




fun times. I miss the Rangers having this kind of grit


 
Machinehead said:
This team has given me two different ulcers.
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Haha! Especially since Layne wasnt even a top 6 forward with Hartford. To his credit, Jeff outscored Sammy Blais in a third of the games!

For some reason, I remember Sam Rosen pumping a lot of these fringe players during broadcasts (as Im sure his marching orders from the top were). Crazy stuff like Jan Mertzig being the heir to Beukeboom with Leetch. Little things like that.

I remember a game where Sam and JD were talking about Garth Murray having a similar growth curve and style of play as Cam Neely. Probably the most asinine thing I ever heard them say on live television.
 
Tom Poti's first season was actually pretty good here. He had like 50 points or something. The all the following seasons he was complete ass and it didn't take long before he became an MSG whipping boy.

Remember when the fans used to have whipping boys, players on our team that we'd boo because they were so overpaid and so bad. Dark times indeed.
 
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I still remember that Tyutin for Zherdev trade and fell out of my chair. Did not like that trade at all when it happened. Never cared for 1 way forwards like Zherdev.
 
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ElLeetch said:
I loved Todd Harvey so much, i got him on a white Liberty Jersey. I wonder if, aside from maybe the ones he wore, if its the only one that still exists today.
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I actually got his autograph. He was doing a random signing at some sporting goods store and there was no one there. Literally didn't even hear about it, just walked by the place and saw it going on. Waited in line 5 mins and got to meet him. Cool guy. Disappointed they didn't keep him.

Loved Bure. Was actually at his first game as a Ranger (where he scored), but the team was terrible and Todd Bertuzzi singlehandedly beat them by scoring a hat trick.
 
Machinehead said:
Oh, the defense corps on those teams were hilarious.

Poor Brian Leetch.
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Who can forget the end of 00-01. Looking like they might squeak into the playoffs as the 7 or 8 seed, then Fleury relapses and Richter blows out his knee.

Richter had a horrid GAA by his standards that year...

The D corps featuring Purinton for 40 games, Lefebvre, and Brad Brown and Rich Pilon suddenly starts letting in 4 a game behind Kirk McLean and Guy Hebert, then you realize Richter was stealing games all year...
 
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hockeyman001 said:
I actually got his autograph. He was doing a random signing at some sporting goods store and there was no one there. Literally didn't even hear about it, just walked by the place and saw it going on. Waited in line 5 mins and got to meet him. Cool guy. Disappointed they didn't keep him.

Loved Bure. Was actually at his first game as a Ranger (where he scored), but the team was terrible and Todd Bertuzzi singlehandedly beat them by scoring a hat trick.
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Bure was amazing and completely changed the team dynamic. But I actually forget he played half a season in 02-03 with us. I blocked out a lot of that season. And to think we gave up some awful package like Filip Novak and Igor Ulanov for about 50-60 games of Bure.

As has been mentioned in this thread, the defense was awful. A lot of the malcontents or injury prone busts were also our veteran defenseman signings. But at least we had a glimmer of hope briefly watching a young Tomas Kloucek destroy people all over the ice. But mostly we were forced to watch the likes of Ulanov, Gusarov, Pilon, Purinton, Karpa, Quintal, Popovic, and Lefebvre constantly get beat to the outside.
 
Was like 20 in 1994.

The whole dark ages was terrible.

I was never fan of the a big/former star name thing.

I understand marketing, that is all it was.
 
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