With a victory today the Rangers can cap off an impressive stretch of hockey with their fifth-straight playoff spot. It’s a wonderful accomplishment considering where the Rangers were on March 21st. But, it also obscures the truth- the Rangers are a team that is not built to win it all.
Yes, the Rangers have some very good pieces. Marian Gaborik has been everything they could have hoped for and more. On his best nights, Henrik Lundqvist is a superstar in net. Brandon Dubinsky is a solid young center and Marc Staal a very good defenseman. Yet, these pieces are not enough to overcome the overall lack of talent on the roster.
Worse, GM Glen Sather never really seems to have a plan for getting the Rangers back to the Stanley Cup Finals except to try and hit a home run on a big free agent. A few years ago he spent a ton of his cap money on two centers, Chris Drury and Scott Gomez. Two years ago he gave a big deal to Wade Redden. But, this off-season he will have to get incredibly creative as the Rangers already have almost $46 million committed to player salaries for the 2010-11 season and players like Marc Staal and Dan Girardi eligible for big raises in free agency.
In his ten years as GM of the Rangers, Glen Sather has shown no inclination to change. Before the NHL strike he spent money with reckless abandon. Constrained by the salary cap, he has only reined himself in to a point. It would be nice to make the playoffs once again, but Rangers’ fans should want more. We waited 54 seasons for the 1994 Cup, we don’t want to wait that long again.
