June 14, 1994. It has been 10,830 days since the New York Rangers have won a cup. In those 10,830 days there have been plenty of ups and downs for Rangers fans, am I right? In no particular order we have – The Zubov trade, Kovalev for NEDVED, Gretzky to NYR, Lindros to NYR, Bure to NYR, the Brian Leetch trade, Jagr putting NYR back on the map, The King establishing himself, Hugh Jessiman being the demise of my being, Panarin choosing NYR over NYI, The letter to the league and player safety, the firing of Gorton and JD, owning the 1st and 2nd overall picks – so many things have happened.
Guess what – not a single one of those things resulted in a Stanley Cup.
Not one of them.
Sure, we’ve had our moments but professional sports are about winning and for the past 10,830 days we have collectively been losers. Are there some teams better at losing than others? Sure there are. But what those losers don’t have in common with us losers is that players like playing at MSG and players like playing in NY. It’s the mecca, it’s the real Garden. Apart of being an original 6 team, we also play in the greatest city on Earth. The Rangers should be Stanley Cup contenders each and every year and for the most part they’re at least a playoff team – that there is a loser mentality. Playoffs shouldn’t be the goal, A CUP should be the goal. Do you know what else is a loser mentality? Not giving up a draft pick because you have ownerships mind in another realm and it’d look cooler if your team had someone to draft – THAT is a loser mentality.
If this is Dolan realizing that it’s going to be difficult winning with the likes of 93 and 20 on the front end and only having one real goal scoring line 5v5 then I get it. But if Dolan thinks this is a year we could win a cup, don’t you think he’d be willing to part ways with this pick? Isn’t a Stanley Cup the ultimate party? Couldn’t he put a hot tub up on the draft stage and put on some trunks and tub with the cup while all the other peasant organizations draft their picks? I sincerely could not believe that this report came out and shame on James Dolan. It’s been almost 11,000 days, can we at least pretend like we give a shit and try our best to bring home that beautiful Stanley Cup?
The Morning Skate 