News Article: Ron Mclean Rant about Richards

[rangers5000]

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl...on-maclean-brad-richards-john-tortorella.html

wow, now i agree richards needs to play tomorrow
but this garbage is so bias, ron is taking it to far imo

of course he cares about money, otherwise he would of signed for the league min, its laughable when people like ron claim he took less money so he doesnt care, how he is above money lol

what have you done lately, its not 2004 in case ron forgot, richards has looked slow as hell and there is no reason he should of played

this whole article is just laughable, like we all should feel sorry and the "poor rich player"

Click to read more...

 

[Boruto]

Public takes are useless. It's not time for this stuff yet with games still to be played. It's about the hockey. Whatever Torts is Doin wrong, that will come after the PO when people are on the chopping block.

 

[Miz]

Not sure if its been discussed...but when Torts said something along the lines of this team needs help off the ice, was he hinting/eluding at Richards?

 

[schabadoo]

That turned into one whiny article. The author's whole problem comes down to one comment? He says the healthy scratch is fine, the quote isn't.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

Maclean and Richards are buddies and its creepy how he defends him. Maclean has some love affair with PEI.

If Richards was American or Swedish CBC would give two *****.

Maclean is the king of politically correct pandering. Never tells it like it is.

 

[aufheben]

Jesus ****ing Christ he was scratched for one game, which we won, by the way. Easy for people to say he deserves better, when they're not Rangers fans.

You know who deserves better? Us. From Richards.

 

[Machinehead]

Richards was out and we won with him out and therefore he should stay out.

 

[Theon]

Didn't he say something similar when Redden was getting benched/bought out or was that some doofus from TSN?

 

[GarretJoseph*]

Was buying into it until he mentioned Redden.. LMFAO.

This is a win-win situation... we sit Richards again and we win...if we lose we can start talking about buying his ass out.

If we put Richards in maybe this scratch lights a huge bomb fire under his ass and he leads/scores us to the Conf finals against Crosby and company... if we lose and he plays like crap.. even more reason to buy him out.

Either way, I think the scratch paid off for Torts. He's not stupid.

 

[Pizza]

" Rangers coach should consider benched star's body of work "

His body of work for this playoff run has been considered and found wanting. Hence the press box. I feel bad for Richie but his butt was parked exactly where it should have been for that game. Coaches don't have the luxury to dwell on the past as others can. They have to go with what will win now. It was the right move.

 

[5 4 Fighting]

Love one of the comments- "Brad is a great player and a great person" what does that have to do with tomorrow's game? The guy has stunk up the ice the whole year, I wouldn't be surprised if its either a concussion problem or an addiction problem. He is visibly laboring out there, he floats like Ricky does, but doesn't control the puck anymore like Nash does. The game has passed him by. Buy him out and say thanks for the ECF memories and those clutch moments from last season.

 

[thepoeticgoblin]

I miss last year's playoffs-Brad. This "have to be downgraded to 3C on NHL13 for realism"-ghost of Brad Richards is not it. I won't count Brad out until he fails with a full pre-season etc, but he is wasted on a 4th line and Boyle, Steps and especially Brass are all outplaying him so...

Let's hope Brad comes back with a vengeance and shuts every doubter up. That'd mean we would have THREE fantastic centers.

 

[Clown Fiesta]

Love one of the comments- "Brad is a great player and a great person" what does that have to do with tomorrow's game? The guy has stunk up the ice the whole year, I wouldn't be surprised if its either a concussion problem or an addiction problem. He is visibly laboring out there, he floats like Ricky does, but doesn't control the puck anymore like Nash does. The game has passed him by. Buy him out and say thanks for the ECF memories and those clutch moments from last season.

How about we don't make up ridiculous ********?

 

[SKS]

Richards was out and we won with him out and therefore he should stay out.

This is the kind of mentality that dumbfounds me. I hope to see us above the whole. "This coach won the Stanley Cup in '04, therefore he is a winner." or "He was out for the game we won, therefore he should continue to sit"

The point may be that Richards is not good enough, and hurts the team. But since Rask decided to make snow angels while the puck was sliding in at a pace my grandmother could have crawled next to does not decide whether Richards should be sitting or not.

I lived in Europe for a while, and while I am much more happy with the way sports are run in North America, I am so sick of the coach and player evaluation based solely on the easiest of statistics. Yes, we are trending more towards corsi and such, which I am very happy with. And I do agree that a full, non lockout season, well portrays stats such as +- and G and A it is just so silly to take every little tiny sample size and understand it as truth. I long for a trending towards the advanced stats mixed with common sense evaluation.


And as to the "he's a winner, he has won before" commonly accepted argument. The game changes, the personnel changes. And how many times have we not seen a goalie getting hot at the right time and leading his team to improbable feats.

As for Richards, I say put him back with Zucc on 3rd line. The only stint of good hockey he played all year was when he was teamed up with the hobbit.

Edit: And once again I found a reason to write about Zucc.. I am seriously developing a painful man crush on this guy.

 

[Ghost of jas]

Tortorella pretty much explained why Richards was being scratched. He needed an "*******" 4th line to go up against the Bruin 4th line, a role Richards is not equipped to play. So, which other center should sit for 'great person' Brad? Brassard, possibly the Rangers best forward in these playoffs? Stepan, the Rangers best two-way center, and leading goal scorer? Or perhaps Boyle, whom Tortorella trusts defensively as much as any forward on this team, and, who, I might add, has three times as many goals as Richards does in these playoffs? Should he replace Kreider or Hagelin, players who have speed that actually cause pressure on Bruin defenders? Or Pyatt, who is one of the only Ranger forwards winning board battles against the Bruins? Even Zucc has shown more than Richards in terms of skill and determination. Hey, Ron Maclean, thanks for your uninformed and biased opinion.

 

[Vitto79]

I do think brad should play today. He may have a fire lit under his arse

 

[nyr2k2]

Womp womp. Get over it, Ronnie. What a *****.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Wow....I'm shocked at McLean on this one. He's usually one of the very few level-headed ones on CBC (except when it comes to defending the refs...he is crazy in love with the NHL refs). I'd expect an idiotic CBC rant like that from Glen Healy or Don Cherry.

Ron obviously hasn't watched any Rangers games this year.

 

[eco's bones]

The reason Richards isn't playing is he's been a detriment on the ice. If he could hold his own--even as a 4th liner he would be out there. It's more than apparent that both Stepan and Brassard are better players than he is now and that Boyle is not only more versatile with his penalty killing, shot blocking, defensive play, being better on face-offs but also with his size and strength and his penchant for playing at his best in the playoffs. Not going to argue that Newbury is a more talented player or even a better player but he's a better 4th liner and leaves Richards nowhere to go. Still he would be playing if his line could have held it's own but they were getting eaten up by Boston's 4th line which scored both of Boston's goals in game 3 which put us down 3 games to 0.

Ronald McLean's concerns have nothing to do with the Rangers continuing on to the next round--his concern here is about his buddy. And he slants his article to make Tortorella and the Rangers organization into some kind of unfeeling entities. Bringing up Redden, Gomez etc.--well if he's a Leafs fan--all those years of not making the playoffs--making heroes out of guys who can't cut it anymore. Where we are now is not about the player--it's about the team--the names don't ****ing matter. If Henrik was ****ing up and costing us games I'd be all for giving Biron a shot. Richards has had a fabulous career--made tons of money--Newbury has not but he's an acceptable hockey player at this stage and a better fit to play.

BTW some of these suits who write about this game wanted this cap thing and they got it. Now one of them rants about in the old days it wasn't about the money. So it's not the old days then and the Cap that they wanted so badly did make it much more about the money.

 

[RangerBoy]

Richards has many friends. Many of them thought Torts would play Richards today. Brooks wrote about it today. If Bad wasn't a Canuck nobody says boo.

 

[mandiblesofdoom]

He has to keep Richards out. Stepan and Brassard are now much better, and Brad doesn't fit with a tough fourth line.

What a dopey article.

 

[Bleed Ranger Blue]

Its all about roles. Richards has been incapable of filling a top 6 center role for the majority of this season. Hes a mess on the PP.

What good is Brad Richards in a checking role?

 

[haveandare]

Jesus ****ing Christ he was scratched for one game, which we won, by the way. Easy for people to say he deserves better, when they're not Rangers fans.

You know who deserves better? Us. From Richards.

Well said. I'm sure he's a nice guy and I wish him nothing bet the best one human to another, but as a player on the Rangers, he's been awful this year and there's really no excuse for it.

 

[trilobyte]

Ron MacLean has always loved the sound of his own voice and likes to pontificate.

Roster moves like sitting Richards should not be turned into a soap opera.
Over-complicating things in the media does not serve anybody well. For that reason, I really did not like Tortorella's emotional postgame explanation the other night. My own feeling is it was over the top and just fanned the flames higher. More importantly, it is not necessary, not at all.
All that needed to be stated was something like 'we had to make some adjustments...next question please'.

It is fine for the question to be posed, but as coach, you are in control of the answer. Some see Tortorealla's answer as noble and standing up for your player. I thought it was a loose, sloppy and unfocussed answer.

 

[BLONG7]

Ron MacLean has always loved the sound of his own voice and likes to pontificate.

Roster moves like sitting Richards should not be turned into a soap opera.
Over-complicating things in the media does not serve anybody well. For that reason, I really did not like Tortorella's emotional postgame explanation the other night. My own feeling is it was over the top and just fanned the flames higher. More importantly, it is not necessary, not at all.
All that needed to be stated was something like 'we had to make some adjustments...next question please'.

It is fine for the question to be posed, but as coach, you are in control of the answer. Some see Tortorealla's answer as noble and standing up for your player. I thought it was a loose, sloppy and unfocussed answer.

Mclean is an idiot...but bencning a guy who makes 12M per, is going to get turned into a soap opera no matter what...