Congratulations To My Favorite Player on the Eve of His HHOF Induction. . .

My favorite hockey player is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame tonight. My favorite player - ever.

I don't think many of us - I certainly didn't - knew just how blessed we were to get to watch someone like him play, night in, night out. How his style of play, his work ethic, his quiet demeanor, would so deeply affect the team while he was on it and make us all, over five and a half years after his departure, still long for those days as if they were yesterday.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm talking about Brian Leetch, my favorite player. Arguably - and yes, a very, very good argument can be made - the best Rangers player. Ever.

If he's not the best player ever to don the red, white, and blue, surely he's among the best. No one dare argue that.

The man of relatively few words off of it, Leetch never failed to make every statement while on the ice. The way he was able to lead a rush and get back, effortlessly, flawlessly - you just don't see that anymore. I get a odd sense of bittersweet joy when I remember it even today. Joy because he was simply that good, and bittersweet because he couldn't play forever.

Speaking of joys, I truly consider it one of my greatest joys that I was a Rangers fan and able to watch someone of Leetch's, in ways unparalleled, talent play for my favorite team. Players like him do not come along every day. If you are a Rangers fan, until recent seasons perhaps, you were still waiting for a decent to semi-good defensemen, let alone one that could be described as great, spectacular, marquee, and yes, homegrown.

For I would have loved Brian Leetch if he were from any country. I seriously would have. But it gave me satisfaction to know that Brian was both mine, as a Rangers fan, and mine, as an American. It was a great source of pride. Someone that it can be argued was one of the best defensemen to ever play in the game - from any country - and he was born in Texas, and raised in the New England area.

The American roots would be intertwined with him forever, for more than just two reasons, but never for more than these two.

- Brian Leetch was the first American born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. I would imagine he will not be the only American to ever win the award, but 15 years later, he is still the only one.

- Brian Leetch captained the greatest American hockey team to come together in our lifetime. I still get chills thinking about the 1996 World Cup. I've seen exciting hockey, but I certainly have not seen as exciting hockey played on an international stage. Certainly not with the Americans coming out on top. What a series. And Leetch was very much a part of that.

When looking back on Brian's remarkable career - and remarkable doesn't even begin to do justice to the guy so often overlooked because while he was graceful and smooth, he wasn't flashy - the only disappointment I can name is that it didn't end in New York. If anyone - anyone - deserved to retire a Ranger, it was Brian Leetch. He's not over it, understandably, and we can't go back, but as much as the disappointment is there, I think it's now been buried far enough. Buried under all the wonderful memories of the player that Brian was, and the person he still is.

I could probably go on about Brian Leetch forever, but instead I think I'll let his former teammate, Mike Richter, speak for me, just this once.

"There's only going to be one Brian Leetch," said Richter. "He was not just great, he was unique in the way he was great. You know what? I really miss watching him play."

So do I, Ricky. So do I.


Congratulations, Brian Leetch, and thank you.






#2 Forever.

The Flames/Kings Finale and One Anze Kopitar. . .

Let me just say, the last 1 minute of the Kings/Flames game last night was the MOST exciting hockey I have seen this year. Period. And that might just be because I've been watching the bland (I refuse to say vanilla as an adjective because I, like Steven Stamkos very much like vanilla) play of the Rangers, but wow. Wow. And Wow.

Tim Preissing's guts on that play to literally dive, and keep the puck, snow plow style, in the zone was something. The pressure of the Kings to tie in that last minute was incredible. And it was just by some luck, perhaps, and some Miikka Kiprusoff, that the puck did not go in. Intense.

Earlier, Oscar Moller scored his first two NHL goals for the Kings. The second was to tie it late in the 3rd at 2-2.

Lucky Luc Robataille spoke with the CBC mid-game and said, it's not that their players are young - the Kings that is - it's that they are young and really, really good. And they will get good, hopefully stay good together, and be really something in a few years, and for years to come.

If that game was any indication, I agree.

Calgary, admittedly, did not play their best. Although they've now won 6 in a row. But LA stayed with them, and made it a very close, very interesting game. With an ending, we wish more games had. I know I do.

Credit all around.

And a bonus, because I was home and my Tivo was not left to it's own devices, I got to see all of After Hours. And they interviewed Anze Kopitar. :)

A kid who, growing up in a country that really had very little hockey and certainly not hockey that bread a consistent crop of NHL players (well, none, to be exact), knew what he wanted to do. Be that NHL player. And he did become the first ever from Slovenia. An All-Star last year. He was humble, he was funny, and he was, yes, well-spoken. Why you ask? Because frankly I was a little surprised a guy so young from such a foreign place was dropping "you knows" like kids I went to high school with.

The story goes that as a young teenager Anze told his Grandmother, who taught English, that he wanted to learn the language. He said, I don't expect to be in Slovenia for much longer. And when I get to the NHL I am going to want to know English.

Cocky? Not at all. Confident? You bet.

The league needs more. And I admire his attitude. The Kings have locked him up with a new seven year contract. And with all their young talent- O'Sullivan, Brown, Doughty, Frolov, etc - seem poised to really make a statement for LA in a few years and for a long, long time.

***

Nothing else really much to say on last night. I stand by my statement that there should be, if nothing else, a change in personnel and/or a change in attitude on Tuesday night for the Rangers. We will see.

Oh, but and in mentioning Drew Doughty above, let me just say, he appears to set up the powerplay for his Kings better than the guy the Rangers paid $6.5 million a year to do so. Sorry Wade. Truth hurts.

And as it gets mentioned from time to time, it makes you appreciate BrianLeetch. Brian Leetch was a thousand times more than just a guy who set up the Rangers on the point, but. . .he did that too. And he can never, ever be replaced, we know that. But it also makes me think of the (although most recently injury plagued) great Sergei Zubov who never did get the credit he deserved for being that guy. For well over a decade now.

A fan of the stay at home defenseman? At times. But give me a guy who can step up into the offensive play and make it - - I'll take them any day. Hands down.

The Return of Avery. . .Post Game. . .

"He's a career minor-leaguer and he's got to get in the paper some way. So why not talk about me?" Sean Avery on Rangers goalie Steve Valiquette.

That may have been as ugly as it got last night. Or it may have gotten much uglier. We'll probably never know everything that happened in #16's return to the place he called home for the better part of the last two seasons. So all I can review is what was seen and heard:


Avery's Antics:

I happen to really like and respect Steve Valiquette. I happen to really like and appreciate Sean Avery. It's a simple as that. Appreciation versus respect. Sean Avery, the hockey player and the personality that goes along with it, is entertaining. I appreciate that. As a fan and for what it does for the league - making it all a little less cookie cutter. I appreciated it when he was a Ranger and now that he's a Star. Above all else, no one can ever say he is boring. However, I respect Steve Valiquette. I've had the pleasure of talking with him for a few brief moments after a game once, and he is as nice and genuine as he appears on his post game interviews. A real good guy. Does a genuine good guy deserve that swipe from Avery? Certainly not.

But I'm not going to throw Avery under a bus for it either. Why? Because he's wrong. The above statement is blatantly wrong. Valiquette has better things to do than talk about Avery to get his name in the papers, for one. I'm pretty sure his play against teams like Toronto and Philadelphia mean he gets plenty of press at those games for the right reasons. He's not a minor leaguer. In fact, he can probably be starting on a few teams in this league right now. So it's false. End of story. They are just words meant to get a rise.

But the real reason I won't allow myself to worry about it - is because this is Sean Avery. Sean being Sean. He said he wasn't going to talk to the media. And yet, not at all surprisingly, he still did take time to talk to Stan Fischler (where the above quote came from on MSG network). And he said something marginally controversial. Is anyone really shocked? Anyone? This is Sean being Sean. I'm sure Vali slept just fine last night. And in defense of the entire situation - which for the record started because apparently Brandon Dubinsky and Valiquette both said things about how the atmosphere around the team was different this year and that it had to do with the absence of Avery - these guys that have a right to their opinions. I heard that Sean sat in the locker room (I'm assuming visiting or perhaps at the training center because I am pretty sure the Rangers home locker room has the two goalies sit side by side) with Dubinsky on one side and Valiquette on the other. If ANYONE has the right to be sick of his mouth, it's those two. And like him or not, and again, I still like him, Sean has a big freakin' mouth. And that can grate on anyone, day in, day out. I'm going to leave it at that.

Except for one more thing and I apologize for what might seem to be a tangent. I defended Mark Messier and will continue to do so probably forever, against all those who said he left to go to Vancouver for more money. I really ,really, really think it has everything to do with respect. I read once that he called Brian Leetch as the situation was going down and said, "I can't believe they don't want me." It might appear, on the surface, to be money. But for a guy like that who has plenty, isn't it really more about what you've done and the respect you should get. The guy gets standing ovations whenever he enters the arena. He did more for the team than just the actions of that one year, but it is that one year that cemented his legacy. He can live forever on that one year. And they pretty much said, we don't need you THAT much. And that hurt and he left, poised for the next challenge. Although I know he never wanted to leave. If I had to guess, he felt he had to. Hockey players are people, and people are prideful mammals. That hurt his pride. He moved on. That's my opinion.

Now Avery is not Messier, or Brian Leetch (who also to this day believes - very rightly so - that he was greatly disrespected by the Rangers organization), but he still might feel something of the same vein as those two great players did.

Allow me to explain before you jump at me. Are these situations on the same scale? Don't be serious. I think Leetch was the most disrespected and did the most in his time in New York, even over Messier and over Mike Richter. Again, I think Messier's moments in 1994 paints his strong legacy to this team and he will be remembered forever.

Sean Avery could not be further away on that list. It's not a contest. He might fall somewhere 300 players down the line of guys that have stood and contributed for the red, white, and blue, whereas you might be looking at 1 and 2 in Leetch and Messier.

But . . . like it or not - he made the Rangers a more effective team. He loved his time in NY. Despite his attitude and his mouth, he was very rarely a reason they lost. More often than not, he was a reason they won. Somewhat unorthodoxly? Yeah maybe. But effective. All I am really saying is the guy probably just wanted to see some respect. And in his mind, he didn't get that.
Is he worth what he was asking monetarily? Probably not, but I am not sure. I hesitate to say no way in hell, because, face it, Gomez, Drury, Redden and Rozsival are not worth what they are making for this team at all. (Neither were guys, although good guys like, Eric Lindros, Bobby Holik, Darius Kasparaitis, et al). And yet they get to stay. So. . . I'm not going to suggest he is or isn't worth it. It's not important. But the process is a business. (Ask Bobby Holik how he felt when he played for the Devils and went to arbitration. He's a smart guy, but his feelings were hurt. So he turned and walked away from a team he loved. For the extra $500,000? Puhhhleaaseee. It was because he felt disrespected. Right, wrong, or indifferent. He moved on.) And Sean made a business move. Whether he felt he was going to take whoever was offering the most money OR he felt disrespected by a team that was, in all honestly kissing his @ss a little at times during his years there, OR a combination of both - he moved on. In my mind it's as simple as that. We should probably move on too.


Avery's Game:

Avery's game was nothing special. He wasn't bad, he wasn't good. He was just there. Chirping at moments. Chipping at others. But nothing insane. At one point he tried to hit Dmitri Kalinin behind the net, and half missed, falling to the ice. That prompted laughs from the crowd. Which, for the most part, was in the anti-Avery corner. Whether a few guys decided to start to boo and it caught on from there, I'm not sure. I, for the record, do not boo. I really don't. I'll mumble stuff under my breath, but I don't boo. It's not my style. If fans got pleasure out of doing it, then fine. But, at the end of it all, the Stars still won the game. Which brings me to:


The Game Itself:

It was really pretty uninspired. Gomez, in my opinion, might really have been suffering from effects of the flu in the games last week, because he looked much quicker last night. I'll admit that. The rest of the team, with the exception of Callahan and Dubinsky, who always look fast, did not. It was a good start. The Rangers drew a powerplay on Loui Erikkson's penalty at 25 seconds and potted their first (and consequently only) goal at 58 seconds.

For the next 59:02, it was mostly Stars or indifferent. Rangers got some shots, definitely. But even their goal - and if it helps his confidence than I'm all for him getting it - by Naslund was into an essentially empty net. Kudos on his being open for it though. And he did have five shots on the night.

Drury continued to be invisible. Is it too early to say that he is letting the "captain" stigma get to him? I mean I honestly, and I haven't said one word about this, felt the Rangers shouldn't have named a captain this year. Why do they really need one? Have 3 assistants, like they did post-lockout, and let someone step up and earn it - both on the ice and in the room. No personal disrespect to Drury, but it is not going to look good to have your team captain also being the worst player on your team. And can you ever take that back?

Gomez, Callahan, and a slightly renewed Nigel Dawes, also had a good number of shots, so it continues to prove that Gomez plays well with guys with the younger guys, rather than Drury and Naslund.

Michal Rozsival is a question for me. I never hated him, never loved him. The guy has helped score some goals over the years, many clutch. But. . . he always takes penalties - in good games, in bad games, and at all types of moments. At some point you have to ask, is he just dumb to keep taking the same penalties, or does he get caught in bad spots on the ice? I'm not sure. I don't hate him like some people seem to, but he and his co-D on the power play (one Wade Redden) are both grossly overpaid. Speaking of #6 - he hasn't had a point since opening night. At least Rozsival finds the net from time to time. Or helps others find it.

On a personal level, I loved seeing Mike Modano get the game winner. I've been a big fan of his for a very long time and to have him still play and continue to contribute (6 pts in 6 games this season) makes me happy. He's a loyal guy, and has played for the Stars franchise for all his season in the league, which is rare in this day's NHL. And he's American born, and arguably one of the all-time best from the USA. And if you are looking at goals and points, he already is that guy. I watched the Stars big time during the 99 season and the early 2000s. They had some epic playoff matchups against Edmonton and Colorado. Those were great. I've never quite understood the switcher-oo the Stars played with Modano being captain and then not, but I think he was a good enough guy to take it in stride for the most part. A part of a team, and if the team succeeds, I'll be happy, kind of guy. Or else he would have been out of there too. But he does great things for Dallas. Not many people, especially from a state like Michigan, play in Minnesota, go onto Dallas, and then stay there. In Dallas. Year round. The city of Dallas owes Michael Thomas Modano a lot. And for me, he's had a great career to watch.


Overall:

Sean said good things about the Rangers - last night, when he was with the team, and at times in between. Whether it was all in the name of public relations, we won't ever know. But I think he liked NY. I think NY was good to him. And I think he was good for the Rangers as well. I'm not his teammate, so I can't guess whether or not the Rangers players (that were on the team the last two years with Sean) feel it is a good or bad thing he's not around. But, for me, he is entertaining and he is more than just the character that no one can deny he is. He came back to the Garden last night, and was essentially nothing less than his true self. And, whether he pumped up his new team or distracted his former team, his new team won the game. And that's the bottom line.