The first NHL season in the AL Era (After Lockout) is nearly half over.  At the begining of the year no one knew what to expect.  Many players had changed teams, there were new rules, new faces, prognosticators were having a nightmare trying to predict what fans would see when the Zambonis started humming again.  One thing every expert agreed on however was that the New York Rangers were going to stink.  Well, half way through the season that is one prediction that people are starting to back off of. 

There are lots of reasons people point to for the Rangers success this year, the new rules freeing up Jagr to be Jagr, a tandem of two strong goaltenders in Weekes and Lundqvist, a coaching staff that forces all players, from first liners to fourth liners, to be accountable or else they are in street clothes.  All of these are valid reasons, but to me, the biggest reason for the Ranger rebirth is the salary cap.

When Glen Sather was making his reputation as a team builder in Edmonton he was doing so with limited financial resources.  Those contraints forced him to be creative in shaping a roster that could compete and win night in and night out (having Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and some guy named Wayne helped too no doubt) but even after those three left, the Oilers were still competative despite having to constantly unload prime players for young unproven talent due to salary restraints.  When Sather came to the Rangers he was like a kid in a candy store with a pocket full of cash.  He had always wanted and Eric Lindros, now he could afford him, Pavel Bure?  Sure give me that too.  Bobby Holik, Tom Poti, Petr Nedved, Alex Kovelev...give me all of them.  I don't include Jaromir Jagr in this group because in a move of sheer genius Sather managed to get Jagr for non-players and got the Capitals to agree to pick up most of his contract as well.  The bottom line is this; for the first four years of his time in New York Sather got away from everything that made him Sather.

When it became apparant that the labor crisis was going to cause a shutdown of the sport Sather started getting creative.  He shipped off Kovelev, Nedved, Chris Simon, Matt Barnaby and Brian Leetch for a group of high level prospects to restock the minor leagues that Sather had stripped the previous years.  Then the NHL came back with a hard salary cap Sather was forced to return to the sort of creative team building that made him a "genius" in Edmonton.  Because of the fact that Washington was paying the lions share of Jagr's salary the Rangers were able to keep him on the books and still have enough room to surround Jagr with players like Straka and Rucinsky, fellow Czechs who would make his star winger comfortable.  He then went out and filled out his roster with role players like Jason Ward, Jason Strudwick, Michael Rosival and Marek Malik.  Prospects like Dominic Moore, Petr Prucha and Blair Betts were finally being given a real shot to make the Rangers instead of being blocked by fading stars. 

Now half way into the season the Rangers are starting to come back, and so is the Glen Sather the Rangers thought they were hiring.