News Article: Ron Mclean Rant about Richards

[Baby Punisher]

What a waste of bandwidth on the intertronz that article was. All the author did was list Richie's past accomplishments and whine. Messier had an illustrious career & lots of accomplishments... are we gonna suit him up for next season?

Is Mess available to play? That might be the only way we can keep him from being behind the bench.

 

[eco's bones]

Could be. The way the Bruins played the first three games of the series you knew they were on a mission. The likelihood of the Rangers coming out on top was slim. Maybe ole Slats decided to make the decision to keep his own head out of the public noose. We all know he's pretty much hired for life....but when the public goes bonkers, especially nowadays with the huge roar we can all make through social media....sometimes people are forced to listen.

Much easier to shove the grumpy, media hatin' old coach under the bus. Force him to make a personnel decision he hates, and the casual fans will (and did) scream over, to make Torts the perfect sacrificial lamb. No one would question why or how, just get the nasty bum outta here!

This move easily buys Slats a few more years, cause, ya know, it takes a few seasons to fully implement a new system, get it working down on the far as well, bring in a new crop of prospects in a new direction, etc, etc....

Being down in games 3-0 and with a $6.667 mil cap hit player that your coach vouched for and who besides not producing on the ice--his even taking a shift leading to opposition goals by their bottom line might just have been enough for Sather to begin thinking maybe the team would be better off on a different track. Tortorella is bullheaded or at least appears to be. I can see him being reluctant to remove Richards from the lineup. It's speculation on my part. But Sather's comment on Richards sitting out being an organizational decision looks like a red flag to me.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Being down in games 3-0 and with a $6.667 mil cap hit player that your coach vouched for and who besides not producing on the ice--his even taking a shift leading to opposition goals by their bottom line might just have been enough for Sather to begin thinking maybe the team would be better off on a different track. Tortorella is bullheaded or at least appears to be. I can see him being reluctant to remove Richards from the lineup. It's speculation on my part. But Sather's comment on Richards sitting out being an organizational decision looks like a red flag to me.

The ultimate responsibility for the Richards signing rests with Glen Sather

 

[eco's bones]

The ultimate responsibility for the Richards signing rests with Glen Sather

'Ultimately' yes you could say that but **** has a habit of rolling downhill and when it comes to walking the plank it's usually the captain who decides and not very often will it be that the captain decides it's going to be himself.

Sather IMO has been living a charmed life since he came to NY. Not going to argue that sometimes he rips other GM's off in trades but a high % of his UFA signings have turned out to be putrid.The Gomez signing though is dear to my heart--how he turned that almost useless player into McDonagh will keep me laughing out loud until the day I die. Personally after Glen's first couple years I was waiting for the hammer to fall on him right up until the lockout. He had a team of has been all stars--making tons more $ than any other team at the time and unable to make the playoffs--we had very few worthwhile prospects and nothing but has been AHL all star vets on the farm.

Well--Renney and Maloney very much helped rebuild his team for him. Maloney went to Phoenix and Renney eventually got fired and Uncle Glen continued on.

But to the point here Tortorella bears some responsibility for bringing his buddy in--and I do get the idea he was reluctant to pull the plug on his pal when he started ******** the bed. There were a lot of moments during the regular season when Richards could have or should have been benched and I doubt Torts would have given many others the same leeway.

 

[Jersey Girl]

If Richards was Sather's only bad free agent signing (or at least one of a small number of them) I'd say Tortorella must have led poor Glen in the wrong direction. But since Sather's record of scouting and signing free agents is abysmal, he gets no benefit of the doubt whatsoever. Just another bad signing by a horrible free-agent talent evaluator.

 

[stan the caddy]

I really think Sather would have gone out and signed Richards regardless of who the coach was. It's not a move that I can really criticize. Richards was the best center available and was supposed to qb the power play. It seemed like a no brainer.

Redden was the bad signing. Not only did the Rangers pay him way too much but his career was already going down hill. Sather also failed to complete the bottom six this past offseason. Sather's missed on a lot up bottom six bangers.

 

[eco's bones]

I really think Sather would have gone out and signed Richards regardless of who the coach was. It's not a move that I can really criticize. Richards was the best center available and was supposed to qb the power play. It seemed like a no brainer.

Redden was the bad signing. Not only did the Rangers pay him way too much but his career was already going down hill. Sather also failed to complete the bottom six this past offseason. Sather's missed on a lot up bottom six bangers.

And that's true enough. At the time Richards of the signing Richards was a legit 1st line center--unlike Drury or Gomez who were more 2nd line types. For the cap hit the Rangers signed him for it wasn't realy that bad--at the time------apart from the fact that 9 years is too damn long. Well that was a question that most of us thought we'd be looking at maybe 5 (not 2) years down the road.

As for Redden--I always wanted Chara and it's consistent with the way I look at things. Redden certainly appeared to some as a somewhat slicker player. To me a guy like Chara with his size and physical style is almost always preferable. To win a championship in hockey you've got to be able to go to war. Chara fits the criteria for that just about perfectly. I never understood why some people at that time were angling for Redden. WTF.

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

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

This is the best avatar ever

 

[Lindberg Cheese]

And that's true enough. At the time Richards of the signing Richards was a legit 1st line center--unlike Drury or Gomez who were more 2nd line types. For the cap hit the Rangers signed him for it wasn't realy that bad--at the time------apart from the fact that 9 years is too damn long. Well that was a question that most of us thought we'd be looking at maybe 5 (not 2) years down the road.

As for Redden--I always wanted Chara and it's consistent with the way I look at things. Redden certainly appeared to some as a somewhat slicker player. To me a guy like Chara with his size and physical style is almost always preferable. To win a championship in hockey you've got to be able to go to war. Chara fits the criteria for that just about perfectly. I never understood why some people at that time were angling for Redden. WTF.

Yeah agree. Richie signing looked good at the time. He seems like a good dude, did some good lockerroom things. Let him go away quietly with Dolans money hopefully to TB

 

[PlamsUnlimited]

We didn't expect Brad to decline so much that quickly but he did. He was okay last season. Put up timely goals and points, was a help in the locker room. But now, the probably thing is that he'll be bought out. Leaves us shallow at center again. well Shallower