DENVER – The conversation with Adam Graves occurred in Burlington on Sept. 8, the fourth day of training camp. Optimism was at a high level. The associate captain, talking about the new Rangers, took a moment to mention an old one.
“It goes without saying that we all know what we lost on April 18,” Graves said, referring to the date of Wayne Gretzky’s Great Goodbye.
Now, nearly two months later, it has gone without anyone saying it. Remarkably, not once has a Ranger referred to Gretzky’s absence as a contributing factor to the dismal 4-7-3 getaway that’s weighing down everyone on and around the team. It’s almost as if Gretzky’s three years on Broadway were a figment of someone’s imagination.
This phenomenon was brought to Mike Richter’s attention two days ago at Rye. Graves’ words were repeated to the goaltender, who may sit for Kirk McLean here tonight against the Avalanche. He thought for a moment, then responded.
“But do you know what? We don’t all know what we lost on April 18, because half the guys in this room weren’t here then,” said Richter, 1-5-3 in nine starts. “Just look from locker to locker. Guys have come here from all over. They don’t know what the New York Rangers are or were. They don’t know what it was like to play with Wayne or with Mark [Messier].
“Plus, it’s almost like Wayne was in his own category, especially when he was here. It’s like he was beyond being a star, beyond definition. He was the exception to every rule.
“He was just, ‘Wayne.'”
He was just the guy who directed the power play to the NHL’s top five in each of his three Ranger seasons, second last year, fifth two years ago, first in 1996-97. Now without Gretzky, who finished sixth in the league last year with 27 PP assists, to quarterback the unit, without anyone demonstrating even the slightest ability to take command down low or at the half-boards, the Rangers have sunk to an indescribable 4-for-62 with the man advantage, a number that does defy mathematical logic.
And now, without Gretzky to step up front and center after every game to assume the burden of explaining his team’s defeats, it’s left to everyone else to confront the media and answer the questions day after day after day. And it’s grating on the Rangers, most of whom, with Brian Leetch and Kevin Stevens as notable exceptions, retreat behind handy (and hardly believable) cliches. Gretzky often did, too, but he was Gretzky. He’d clear his throat, speak about how bad it was, the media would listen, and the rest of the team was thus able to escape the ritual of self-flagellation. Not anymore.
The chemistry on this mix-and-match team seems more suspect than ever. Winless in their last six (0-4-2), the Rangers can’t seem to figure anything out. But what’s clear is that the power play, filled with the team’s top talents, is sabotaging whatever chance the Rangers have to make a positive statement.
It started with the first period of the first game, Oct. 1 at Edmonton, when Theo Fleury – the team’s signature free agent acquisition – stayed on the ice throughout the entirety of two, two-minute power plays, and finished the season’s opening period with 10:31 of ice, an extraordinary number. Petr Nedved – counted upon to be the offensive linchpin – wasn’t much better in that regard. And it’s only continued.
Shifts of 1:30 have become the norm for Fleury and Nedved both at even strength and on the power play. Through two periods of Wednesday’s deflating 3-3 draw with the Islanders, the two most important offensive players on the team each averaged an inexcusably long and counterproductive 1:10 per shift. Long shifts inevitably equate to tired mistakes. They upset the flow, and the guys who have one skate over the boards waiting for their own turns. They indicate nothing less than a dramatic lack of discipline.
What is John Muckler supposed to do? Is he supposed to bench Fleury and Nedved, both of whom have played almost the entire season outside the three-point arc, shooting from impossibly wide angles, routinely missing the net by yards? That would go over well. It is, however, something that must at some point be considered. Muckler’s trying everything in dealing with this group, accepting input from everyone, using every means possible to get this collection of individuals to merge as a unit.
Rest assured of one thing, however. If many of the Rangers don’t have a grasp of what the team and organization lost on April 18, the coach does. He knew it then, he knows it now. Oh, does he ever understand what Gretzky’s retirement has meant.
The evidence is only everywhere.
