News Article: Sam Rosen To Retire After Next Season

Captain Monglobster

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
1,994
1,485
Only saving grace is that Kenny Albert is waiting in the wings. Howie Rose wouldve been nice but Sam decided to stay for 100 years. Not complaining, Sam is the best in the business. Gonna be missed. Hopefully there will be a few more big calls to make before the year is over for his sake.
 

Boris Zubov

No relation to Sergei, Joe
May 6, 2016
19,894
28,168
Back on the east coast
Phil Esposito as a Ranger player was Good.
As a Ranger’s announcer he was Bad.
As the Ranger GM he was Ugly.
I dunno, I thought he was a fun listen on MSG. He was entertaining & insightful, plus for a kid like me who was just learning the subtleties of the sport, he taught me a lot about the game. I really liked his Espo on Ice segments during the intermissions.

Plus he was an unabashed homer & his excitement was contagious. His last year in the MSG booth was 85-86 before he was named GM over the summer. 2nd round of the 86 playoffs Game 1 in Washington, game goes to OT where all over a sudden Phil SCREAMS over Sam "He's in!!!", before Brian MacLellan even took the pass for the breakaway that he scored on for the game winner. I will never forgot how fired up he was. As a 14 year old, Phil was alright by me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheWrongWay

Clark Kellogg

NYU Film Student
Sponsor
Aug 2, 2013
8,079
10,561
Vermont, USA
I dunno, I thought he was a fun listen on MSG. He was entertaining & insightful, plus for a kid like me who was just learning the subtleties of the sport, he taught me a lot about the game. I really liked his Espo on Ice segments during the intermissions.

Plus he was an unabashed homer & his excitement was contagious. His last year in the MSG booth was 85-86 before he was named GM over the summer. 2nd round of the 86 playoffs Game 1 in Washington, game goes to OT where all over a sudden Phil SCREAMS over Sam "He's in!!!", before Brian MacLellan even took the pass for the breakaway that he scored on for the game winner. I will never forgot how fired up he was. As a 14 year old, Phil was alright by me.
My take was he used his tv platform to undermine Craig Patrick,Ted Sator and what they were trying to accomplish.
Then ended up getting Patrick’s job and firing Sator even after Sator took a team that finished the season two games under .500 deep into the post season. That team over achieved in the playoffs and was only stopped by an insane Patrick Roy performance. The Canadiens ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
Craig Patrick had said when he took the job after Fred Shero was released that he had a 9 year plan to achieve the objective of making the Rangers into a perennial contender.
Brian MacLellan was another Esposito special.
Trading him when he found out that Brian had taken a lease on a car only until April when he was traded here from the Kings even though MacLellan played extremely well in the playoffs.
Long Live the Smurfs!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheWrongWay

TheWrongWay

Registered User
May 7, 2023
164
445
New York
My take was he used his tv platform to undermine Craig Patrick,Ted Sator and what they were trying to accomplish.
Then ended up getting Patrick’s job and firing Sator even after Sator took a team that finished the season two games under .500 deep into the post season. That team over achieved in the playoffs and was only stopped by an insane Patrick Roy performance. The Canadiens ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
Craig Patrick had said when he took the job after Fred Shero was released that he had a 9 year plan to achieve the objective of making the Rangers into a perennial contender.
Brian MacLellan was another Esposito special.
Trading him when he found out that Brian had taken a lease on a car only until April when he was traded here from the Kings even though MacLellan played extremely well in the playoffs.
Long Live the Smurfs!!!

I didn't even notice the in-house politics you mentioned for that season. I was 18, just moved out, and kinda skirt-chasing.

I do recall Sator was good, but what stood out for me that season was VBK. To this day that's one of the best seasons I've seen from a NYR goalie. It might be the only time a goalie on a losing team won the Vezina (I don't recall any others).

Unfortunately, the Rangers ran into one of the best goalies in NHL history while he was in god mode that playoffs.

But that's one of my all-time favorite NYR seasons and I watch those playoffs on VHS now and again. It still feels surreal and shocking they beat the Caps and Flyers in the first two rounds.
 

TheWrongWay

Registered User
May 7, 2023
164
445
New York
On topic...

Thank you, Sam.

A couple of folks mentioned raising 40 or 94 to the rafters and I think that's a fitting and great idea. Sam is as iconic and synonymous with the NYR as it gets.
 

Boris Zubov

No relation to Sergei, Joe
May 6, 2016
19,894
28,168
Back on the east coast
My take was he used his tv platform to undermine Craig Patrick,Ted Sator and what they were trying to accomplish.
Then ended up getting Patrick’s job and firing Sator even after Sator took a team that finished the season two games under .500 deep into the post season. That team over achieved in the playoffs and was only stopped by an insane Patrick Roy performance. The Canadiens ended up winning the Stanley Cup.
Craig Patrick had said when he took the job after Fred Shero was released that he had a 9 year plan to achieve the objective of making the Rangers into a perennial contender.
Brian MacLellan was another Esposito special.
Trading him when he found out that Brian had taken a lease on a car only until April when he was traded here from the Kings even though MacLellan played extremely well in the playoffs.
Long Live the Smurfs!!!
Looking back at Phil's GM tenure & hearing about his personality over the years, all of this may well be true, however at that age it was all way above my head. I do know that Miller/Ridley trade just tore my heart out only to trade Carpenter 3 months later. What a buffoon.

That 85-86 team was one of my favorites...it was also the season I began attending games regularly at MSG. I've never heard that MacLellan story, but it certainly doesn't surprise me. Typical that he went on to score 30 goals in Minny the following season.
 

TheWrongWay

Registered User
May 7, 2023
164
445
New York
Looking back at Phil's GM tenure & hearing about his personality over the years, all of this may well be true, however at that age it was all way above my head. I do know that Miller/Ridley trade just tore my heart out only to trade Carpenter 3 months later. What a buffoon.

That 85-86 team was one of my favorites...it was also the season I began attending games regularly at MSG. I've never heard that MacLellan story, but it certainly doesn't surprise me. Typical that he went on to score 30 goals in Minny the following season.

That was brutal. Carpenter had the outlier season with a shooting pct like twice his norm and had regressing numbers before he came over. He got to NY and couldn't score in a brothel. Then, he got moved fast as all get up for ... gosh, who did we trade Carpenter for? It was like a Confederate Civil War Captain or something. Oh, it was Dionne, I think. Marcel Dionne. But not young utterly amazing Marcel Dionne.

We got Return of the Jedi deathbed Yoda Dionne.

I love Marcel Dionne. But turning two loved and promising young players into a soon-to-retire, best days way behind him Hall of Famer ... I don't think a heroin addict using a magic 8-ball could make trades that horrific.

Espo did that a few times, where he made a horrible trade and quickly moved the newly acquired pieces to somehow make the initial bad trade even worse.
 

will1066

If you score four, you better f'n win the game
Oct 12, 2008
50,051
71,207
I wonder if it would be fun if JD came back to do color in Sam's last game. Or at the 4 games vs Columbus would make more sense.
It's interesting but JD wouldn't do color on his own team
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad