Confirmed with Link: NYR Fire John Davidson and Jeff Gorton

[Clark Kellogg]

So is it reasonable to think that Dolan told JD and/or JG to draft the statement - or he told them to at least put their names on the statement he had drafted - they refused and got fired? That’s how I’m seeing it.

If that’s the case, I wouldn’t worry too much about ‘direction’. Or at least, in a general sense.

But maybe I’m off-base?

I hope your guess is correct. I like the direction of the team considering what Sather had left Gorton. I believe with the eventual moving of Mika and Strome and the development of bottom six forwards this team will be a force in two to three years?
The Chinese have an ancient saying “Slowly, Slowly to catch a monkey”.
In this case the monkey is the Stanley Cup.

 

[Ruggs225]

After calming down, i am still annoyed!

i think drury will do ok as a gm. I mean look at sakic and yzerman. Both former players that are killing it as gms. And yes i am aware that Yzerman is now in detroit but he was amazing for Tampa.

but he needs to fire Quinn. If he doesnt, he already failed this team.

 

[Machinehead]

I'm not arguing to sign Zib, but he ain't close to declining. Covid wrecked the first half of this season and he's still at a rate of the second best of his career.

If you can't see the issues he's having this year despite the totals he's putting up, I just don't know what to tell you.

I'm glad he can put up points while being basically dead. That's certainly a skill.

 

[SingnBluesOnBroadway]

This ADA thing is reaching near Avery levels of hyperbole and fanaticism. ADA has nothing to do with what happened yesterday.

 

[chosen]

Look, some of these people are good friends. We talk while having a beer. Even in the news media you hear "Dolan thinks the Rangers" unachieved compared to the phrase "The Rangers are widely seen as having underachieved."

For better or worse that's just not the perception out there. Now, if this was next season, I think those rumblings would be very loud. But it's just not there as a whole, even now.

If anything, I think there's more "Surprised" by the fact that some fans were expecting more. And those reactions aren't new to this situation. It was the same reaction before the season. "Are they really thinking this is a likely outcome?"

And we talked about that before the season even started.

Being surprised that fans expect more is odd. They ALWAYS expect more.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

The other thing I’d love to learn more about as this story evolves is what exactly did JD and Gorton disagree with Dolan on about the statement?

Did they not like him going “over their heads” to release it? (I know he’s the owner and can do what he wants)

That is still unclear. I’m not sure I chalk it up to “well JD and Gorton didn’t have their star players back”. I don’t believe that for a second

 

[Machinehead]

This ADA thing is reaching near Avery levels of hyperbole and fanaticism. ADA has nothing to do with what happened yesterday.

This is worse.

At least prime Avery was universally liked.

 

[Tob]

It's kind of hilarious how Gorton the GM gets a 256X256 picture at the corners.

 

[Machinehead]

The other thing I’d love to learn more about as this story evolves is what exactly did JD and Gorton disagree with Dolan on about the statement?

Did they not like him going “over their heads” to release it? (I know he’s the owner and can do what he wants)

That is still unclear. I’m not sure I chalk it up to “well JD and Gorton didn’t have their star players back”. I don’t believe that for a second

I think it's just a case of they're old hockey bois and "you just don't do that"

 

[Machinehead]

It's kind of hilarious how Gorton the GM gets a 256X256 picture at the corner.

Gorton looks like he's actively farting in every picture of him

 

[NYSPORTS]

Drury turned down a few offers because it was clear he couldn't be autonomous. Same places Hextall refused. Drury has to have some level of confidence he can make his own decisions.

Dolan had a knee jerk reaction. Nothing can happen until playoffs. No one is making huge moves until expansion resolves itself. Hopefully things settle down at the garden.

JD may have made a knee jerk reaction by refusing fire Gordon too. Sometimes you need to protect yourself even though the decision is in the wrong.

The only thing J.D. said which concerned me was not preaching patience but outwardly claiming the kids might not be ready to win.

Being patience is for a certain portion of the roster imo and those players needed to be protected and surrounded by NHLers. The NHL is not the US Olympic development team. You can’t wait for a Brett Howden to hit puberty while surrounding him with players who don’t qualify as gritty NHLers or highly skilled young forwards the center can’t keep up with.

Minor league affiliates are for development. Kids not ready for the NHL cannot remain at the NHL level for full development. That’s not patience, that’s a strategy for a development team in hopes the players can reach the NHL.

 

[rangers1314]

Why do some people have to make everything on this board about Trump? Get a life.

 

[haveandare]

There’s a lot more to the story. I expect When JD found out Gorts was being let go some kind of words along the lines of if he goes I go was said. Dolan I guess said ok and here we are. Any one who thinks this is all just because of a letter is out to lunch. More will come out. That’s for sure. We need Drury to be a stud right now. Luckily, he does well in pressure situations.....

I don’t think it’s just because of the tweet thing but I absolutely hate that the timing leads to “Wilson threw off the rangers entire long term plan” comments that look somewhat accurate, and I think pretending it’s about underachieving but keeping the coach, no matter who the coach is, makes it pretty clear that it’s not actually about underachieving

 

[chosen]

For the record I’d rather have Toews than the other two. Would also take Kopitar over Eichel.

Would rather trade a big hitter to try and get some of LA’s young Centers, but I guess that’s off the menu.

I can't imagine giving up anything more than a 3rd round pick for Kopitar. And I'm not sure why anyone would want Toews, at all.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I think this is likely. And it will also derail the rebuild. Guys like these have no patience with kids or any great interest to teach them. It's win now with them. If the kids don't perform they start to get moved around or ride the pine.

So kids will be shipped out for known veterans to make the team look more like the Isles and the Caps. That's what speeding up the rebuild means.

Maybe they should hire a college coach with no experience because he'll be great with the kids.

 

[Jersey Girl]

if the Rangers were like the Avs both J.D and Gordon would still be here. Sakic has no timeline. Urgency has no patience so it’s tough to fleece others. Especially, unlike baseball, there is a hard cap.

This.

I think many of us are not so much worried whether Drury can do the job or not. We’re worried he won’t be able to do what he thinks is the right thing to do without Joffrey Dolan signing off on it.

 

[Rongomania]

WTF, the post... we didn't even get that spread when we won a conference final after 20 years.

 

[SRHRangers]

I can't imagine giving up anything more than a 3rd round pick for Kopitar. And I'm not sure why anyone would want Toews, at all.

I did want Toews last offseason because he would've been a perfect 2C and much needed locker room influence. (50% retention of course)

After his ailment though, that interest died out for me.

 

[Clark Kellogg]

I am one with the Drury and the Drury is the one with me.

No matter how we feel he’s our guy now. So his success is our success.
I don’t believe he will allow Dolan to run rough shot over him. He has leverage. As much as he wants the job, he doesn’t need the job.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

I tend to think nothing would've substantially changed other than ADA getting his ass kicked on top of things.

The problem with Wilson is you have to be willing to take an eye for eye. It's not him you go after, its Backstrom. I don't know if ADA is that guy either.

Big picture I'm not sure I want anyone on the team that WOULD go after Backstrom to hurt him. My limit to dirty play is something like what Buchnevich did, dirty but not super dangerous.

 

[Edge]

Being surprised that fans expect more is odd. They ALWAYS expect more.

They do. But I guess, the best way to frame it is, that some are this amped during a season like this, in a division like ours, with a roster like ours.

 

[NYRFANMANI]

This is worse.

At least prime Avery was universally liked.

Worst thing Avery did? Sloppy seconds remark, iirc. Not even the same sport as what TDA most definitely did.

 

[CLW]

it truly was an embarrassing spectacle against your crosstown rivals. had we dominated the second game, I don’t think he’s as upset. we looked like dogshit both games, outplayed and outmatched, and we got nothing from our vets. if we lost a hardfought game by a goal, i don’t think he’s as upset. dolan or not, that was unacceptable. it’s just… is he gonna dolan it up to try and fix it?

It's also irrelevant. It's in the past. Who cares a rebuilding team was not showing great against a rival that has thrown the kitchen sink at being a competitive Stanley Cup finalist this season. Who cares the Rangers didn't show well against Wilson and the caps. All these issues were well known, under discussion, and obviously because JD and Gorton are not stupid, about to be fixed. I mean, almost all of the Rangers tougher vets were out injured in those games, including the much maligned Jack Johnson brought in only to provide an element of physicality and veteran presence. With them out the team looked light weight because it is light weight without them. Doh.

Nothing will happen now that JD and Gorton were not going to do anyway in some form or other. The firing, obviously, had nothing to do with hockey reasons - it was a political clamp down by the NHL combined with a temper tantrum from a crackpot. There was no other reason for Dolan to kick his own franchise in the nuts like this so dramatically and at this exact point.

 

[DutchShamrock]

Most GMs delegate their assistant to conduct trade talks to some extent. Either get it started, or full on negotiate if the GM doesn't have a rapport with the other side. I'm sure Drury has experience negotiating.

The question is going to be vision and pressure. The noise in the Post about the window not lining up with Kreider, Panarin and Trouba. That's concerning. And maybe Gorton should answer for it because it didn't make sense to a lot of people. Or maybe Gorton was forced into retaining/adding vets when all along he had a 5 year build based around prospects.

A few others summed up my feelings. There is nothing concrete to tell me disaster struck yesterday. I see warning signs for sure, but this could just as easily be a net positive. I'll know this summer if they make moves like the 90s Rangers.

 

[chosen]

Messier made a good point. To win, you gotta win in the streets and in the alleys. To paraphrase, he doesn't think this roster can.

Perimeter hockey from your supposed leaders
Regularly allowing the goalies to get run over
Incompetent 6 on 5, lack of will to get the game tying goal in numerous situations when it could've meant something to the season
Zero unpredictability or danger factor
Consistently getting embarrassed by 3rd string no-name goalies

The Rangers PP isn't incompetent. It's slightly better than average.

Your last point isn't even a thing.

The team definitely needs to get tougher to play against, but they brought in a zillion kids in the past two years and they're all skill players, not tough players. It's just the way it worked out.

This coming offseason would have been the retooling and deciding who to keep and who to move in order to improve.

Now, who knows what is going to happen?