DETROIT – It was not a bad little visit here for Mike Knuble, who arrived empty-handed with the Rangers on Friday and returned to New York after last night’s game with a little bauble known as the 1998 Stanley Cup championship ring.
”Fits like a glove,” Knuble, acquired by the Rangers from the Red Wings for a third-round pick in the 2000 draft, said with a smile after yesterday’s morning skate. ”Same size as the year before.”
Knuble played in 53 games for Scott Bowman last year (three in the playoffs) and nine two years ago after a couple of seasons in Adirondack. It was obvious that the Red Wings had no real plans for the right winger, who will turn 27 in July.
”There wasn’t any room for me here; it’s tough. It leaves doubts in your mind that you can play in the league,” said Knuble, who played four years of hockey at the U. of Michigan, then made his NHL debut in the famous Detroit-Colorado Bloodbath game of March 27, 1997.
The Rangers did have room for Knuble, who brings size and speed to the flank, attributes that the team sorely lacks. Since his arrival just a couple of days before the season-opener, Knuble has earned second-line ice, both at even strength and on the power play. He’d scored nine goals and added 11 assists in 47 games prior to last night. He, Wayne Gretzky, Adam Graves, John MacLean and Brian Leetch are the only Rangers to have played in all of the team’s games.
”I’m happy that I’ve been given the opportunity to prove to myself and to other people that I can play in the league,” said Knuble, selected by Detroit 76th overall in the 1991 draft. ”As I said, when you get buried in an organization, it leaves doubts.”
Knuble was greeted by a number of Detroit media representatives after yesterday’s skate. They wanted to know what it was like playing in the pressurized New York spotlight. The winger laughed.
”Actually, more people know you here [in Detroit],” he said. ”Here, wherever you go, to the post office, the grocery store, the car wash, people stop you and want to know what’s going on with the power play, stuff like that. Here, the Red Wings are major celebrities.
”But it’s a little different in New York. There are a lot more important people there than us, so most of us are pretty anonymous. The Rangers as a group are a pretty big team, but individually people know Wayne Gretzky, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter, and most of the rest of us go about our business anonymously.”
Of course, there were the obligatory questions about what it’s like to play on a team with Gretzky.
”Wayne is a different kind of leader; he’s a quiet leader,” said Knuble. ”But it’s pretty amazing to be around him every day and watch how he responds to people.
”The demands on his time are never-ending, day in and day out. He’s gracious and humble at all times. He’s an ambassador for the game wherever he goes.”
Knuble was asked if he had any thoughts on why the Red Wings, just four games over .500 going into last night, had been struggling.
”What am I going to say – that they don’t know how to win in that room?” he responded. ”I’m sure that by the middle of April, they’ll be ready.
”Really, though, I’m more concerned with what we have to do to get into the playoffs than what’s going on [in Detroit].”
Traded on Oct. 1, Knuble arrived in New York too late to be included in the Rangers’ media guide. Because the Red Wings didn’t print their media guide until after the season had opened (in violation of NHL rules), Knuble does not appear in that book, either.
Hence, he’s a man without a bio.
But one with two Stanley Cup rings.
