If there is anything I love yet hate about
sports it’s second-guessing. It happens in every sport. A manager brings in a
lefty instead of a righty. A driver refuses to pit with 40 laps left. Get the
extra point or go for two. You get the idea, right? But when one of your teams
trades one of your favorite players you can’t help yourself. When that player
ends up being more valuable than who took his place…well…that is heartbreaking.
And with seven games left the New York Rangers may be headed for more
heartbreak.
It’s already been thirteen games that the Rangers have had Martin
St Louis. In that timespan Ryan Callahan has scored four more goals than him
while playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Oh did I mention St Louis has yet to
score for the Rangers? He did on Friday night in Calgary but cameras showed it
was kicked in. Nice try. Then when the Rangers were down by one with two
minutes left he took a penalty. This was an ultimate kick to the balls. This
guy can’t be serious can he?
We already lost the heart and soul of the
team by trading Callahan. News just came out Chris Kreider will most likely
miss the rest of the season. But we have Marty St Louis. Even Barry “Rangers
Suck” Melrose thought it was a good move getting this guy. Not only did we
trade our Captain, we traded first and second round draft picks along with him
for a guy who can already play in old man softball leagues.
Maybe I should take it easy here. I will
even admit I liked this trade when it happened. I thought this guy would keep
scoring goals. He already had 29 when we got him. We weren’t playing very well
at the time, either. But this is now. The Rangers have won five of six and if
the season ended today would host the Flyers in the first round of the
playoffs.
You can’t help but second guess Glenn Sather,
though, because this guy has not scored a goal. And how much worse would we be
if we held onto Callahan. With how well Henrik Lundquist and Ryan McDonagh have
been playing everybody else is there for the ride. The longer this guy goes
without doing anything the shorter the blue seats will give before they boo
every time he touches the puck. He is about to be as popular at MSG as guys
whose last names are Roszival and Crosby.
