Bright Spots From the Dark Ages

[SnowblindNYR]

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...

We shit on Trouba but he'd be easily the second best defenseman on those teams behind Leetch and it's not even close.

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.

Well "former" is key because the Rangers have gone with big name free agents and trades since then and they generally have been good teams.

 

[FoxysExpensiveNYDigs]

Jeff Toms hat trick.

Valeri Kamensky making me ill every game.

 

[Off Sides]

We shit on Trouba but he'd be easily the second best defenseman on those teams behind Leetch and it's not even close.



Well "former" is key because the Rangers have gone with big name free agents and trades since then and they generally have been good teams.

A little different once the salary cap. They had to draft and try to develop players.

Look who leads this current team

Panarin who they paid a ton to, same as it was, yet he is at least younger and was not boken when they signed him,

Zbad who they traded for before he broke out
Fox, again a trade prior to breakout
Shesterkin a mid round draft pick
Miller, Kakko, Chytil, etc draft picks

This is different and better, yet they still fall back on their old ways sometimes.

We'll see what they do, Kane means old ways, a Clowe, E Staal, or Yandle type, old ways too, if they find someone else semi young who they might be able to move forward with, that would be different and good.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Jeff Toms hat trick.

Valeri Kamensky making me ill every game.

Even back then they had guys on the Rangers that should have been in the minors. Pro scouting has always been awful here

 

[RangersFan1994]

Those white liberty jerseys

 

[Crease]

Not watching Sammy Blais.

 

[PANARIN BREAD FAN]

sandy mccarthy fights and slapshots

 

[will1066]

Those white liberty jerseys

Omg I remember this game was awful other than Nerdved's hatty. Goaltending was shitty on both sides, as Richter was in decline. And the D had Chris Tamer and F had Christian Dube. Legion of Doom was unstoppable.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Omg I remember this game was awful other than Nerdved's hatty. Goaltending was shitty on both sides, as Richter was in decline. And the D had Chris Tamer and F had Christian Dube. Legion of Doom was unstoppable.

We were 3 points out of the last playoffs and missed the playoffs by 12 points.

 

[Synergy27]

You guys have hit on a lot of stuff already, but for me one of the highlights was finding this website. As @Machinehead already mentioned, it was pretty pointless to even think about prospects as a Ranger fan in the 90s.

You trade Brian Leetch and start a rebuild? This is uncharted territory. Looking to the future? I don’t even know what that means. How do I figure out what’s going on here?

I am old.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Malhotra was impressive in this game

 

[DialUp]

Malhotra was impressive in this game

Why did it look like the area behind the net was 3 miles wide?

 

[Boris Zubov]

Why did it look like the area behind the net was 3 miles wide?

The Zone dimensions have been altered a few times since I started the NHL back in the early 80s, but I didn't recall the net being so far out from the boards. If you notice, the neutral zone is also larger. I believe these were both revised after the lockout season.

Full disclosure, the Dark Ages lead me away from the NYR & watching a lot of hockey for the majority of that period. The team was such a black hole, plus I was out & about pretty often during those years, so I was a very casual observer...meaning if I was home & the game was on, I would watch, but never that closely.

 

[Hire Sather]

Brian Leetch or Adam Graves tying a game in the last second.. had to be 98 or 99 then we won it in OT

Probably the last time we tied a game in the last second until last night

 

[Boris Zubov]

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.

Actually, without meaning to split hairs, his character name was Bobby Granger. Somehow I thought he showed up when the lockout ended. Not that it makes it any less embarrassing...because it was bad. He was like the precursor to this guitar playing tool.

 

[DialUp]

The Zone dimensions have been altered a few times since I started the NHL back in the early 80s, but I didn't recall the net being so far out from the boards. If you notice, the neutral zone is also larger. I believe these were both revised after the lockout season.

Full disclosure, the Dark Ages lead me away from the NYR & watching a lot of hockey for the majority of that period. The team was such a black hole, plus I was out & about pretty often during those years, so I was a very casual observer...meaning if I was home & the game was on, I would watch, but never that closely.

I was in college during four years of the darks, was a great distraction to the disgrace in the ice.

 

[markymarc1215]

I went to a game at MSG when Rumun Ndur scored a goal. That was nearly as improbable as the Jeff Toms hat trick

 

[MrAlmost]

If those teams had an all star goalie they would have made the playoffs. They weren't the Dark Ages cause we sucked and came in last. It was worse than that. We sucked and came in 9th or 10th. No playoffs, but no high draft picks. Purgatory.

 

[TopShelfSnipes]

Actually, without meaning to split hairs, his character name was Bobby Granger. Somehow I thought he showed up when the lockout ended. Not that it makes it any less embarrassing...because it was bad. He was like the precursor to this guitar playing tool.

Technically that was right after the lockout. I remember the ads. "No more ties!" as he cuts off either Sam or JD's tie, or Jagr telling him how to pick up beautiful Czech women, and makes him say something like "you smell like horse poop" to them not knowing.

Those were a great ad campaign, but then he ran afoul of the Dolan and went away like so many good things and people before...

 

[will1066]

If those teams had an all star goalie they would have made the playoffs. They weren't the Dark Ages cause we sucked and came in last. It was worse than that. We sucked and came in 9th or 10th. No playoffs, but no high draft picks. Purgatory.

We couldn't even suck right!

 

[RangersFan1994]

Actually, without meaning to split hairs, his character name was Bobby Granger. Somehow I thought he showed up when the lockout ended. Not that it makes it any less embarrassing...because it was bad. He was like the precursor to this guitar playing tool.

Bobby Granger was during the Jagr years. Maybe he brought the team luck. It was entertaining. Was he a fan or some actor they hired to promote the game???

 

[RangersFan1994]

Barnaby was one of my favorites during the dark ages.

The way he laughed and yaps during the fights always made me appreciate his entertaining style of agitating.

imagine if the Rangers kept Mike Knuble. He had potential lmfao that was a brutal trade

Jeff Toms hat trick.

 

[RangerLifer]

The beautiful white liberty jerseys.

 

[Guyute]

Zero bright spots. We were basically the Knicks. Good enough to be in the bubble but bad enough to miss the playoffs every year despite trading away potential (picks and prospects) for win-now players. Whatever picks we kept were wasted with horrible drafting.

Total disaster. Thank you Dolan, thank you Sather.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Does anyone remember a 7-6 game we had against the Kings in the 00-01 season? It was such an exciting game that we won. I think Palffy might have had a hat trick. Those Kings teams were fun to watch.