There is no question the most important player on the New York Rangers roster is Sean Avery. There is more of an edge, more of an ego, and more of a winning attitude.
If it wasn't for goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Avery would be a frontrunner for team MVP. Lundqvist's play in net this season simply can't be overlooked. He has played on the top of his head this season posting six shutouts, 16 wins (2 behind the league-leading Evgeni Nabokov and Martin Brodeur), with a 2.21 GAA. If Lundqvist suffered a long-term injury (pray to the hockey gods he doesn't), the Rangers would be doomed.
Even though, Avery isn't the best scorer or passer on the team (2 G, 7 A in 15 games), he brings the intangibles to the table that no one on the roster can. He's an instigator. He's a pest. He's the most annoying player to the opposition. He draws penalties by getting under the skin of the most competitive players. He is the kind of player you want on your hockey team.
I didn't get much of a chance to watch Avery play when he was playing out west with the Detroit Red Wings and Los Angeles Kings, but knew he was a tough guy. I was pretty exciting when it came to my attention that the Rangers acquired him in a trade.
From the minute he touched the ice at Madison Square Garden, he's been a fan favorite. He gives the Rangers an unbelievable lift of confidence. A lift that absolutely helped the Rangers advance to the conference semifinals last season.
If he played for one of the Rangers many rivals in the Atlantic Division, he would probably be the player I hate the most in the NHL. That's a big reason why he's my favorite player on the team.
I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I do know the Rangers are a much better team when he is in the lineup. It's clear the team is inspired much more when Avery laces up the skates.
Avery is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. The Rangers simply have to re-sign him. It's speculated that Brendan Shanahan and possibly Jaromir Jagr will retire come season's end. That's a tremendous amount of leadership that is lost. Losing Avery along with those two would be drastic for the Rangers.
Since the latest NHL lockout, I've been calling for the firing/resignation/get the hell out of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. But the latest news, reported by the Sports Business Journal, makes me wish I never see his face near a hockey rink again.
The Sports Business Journal is reporting the NHL wants to expand. I'll say that again, because it bears repeating: The Sports Business Journal is reporting the NHL wants to expand.
Take a minute to digest that. Bettman wants to add two franchises to the current 30-team NHL in Las Vegas and Kansas City.
Good idea, Gary. Put a hockey team in the gambling capital of the world just after the Rick Tocchet scandal which involved some guy named Gretzky.
Bettman is ruining this great game of hockey. If there is anything the league should not do to try and save itself, it is expansion. The NHL needs to contract or move teams rather than expand the league. The last three Stanley Cup Champions reside in California, North Carolina, and Florida. Three markets in which hockey is dead.
Who am I kidding? Hockey just isn't dead in those markets. The whole league is dead and it hurts us hockey fans.
The NHL needs to get rid of teams like the Phoenix Coyotes, Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Nashville Predators. Hockey in the south just does not work.
The league should move teams to states like Maine, Wisconsin, or the Dakotas, where the fan base would care about their teams. It still boggles my mind the North Stars left Minnesota for Texas (no offense to the state of Texas, but it's a football and baseball state).
After a lockout 3 years ago which cancelled a full season of hockey, the league inserted the slogan "Thank You Fans!" to each sheet of ice in the NHL. Boy, that made me proud to be a hockey fan.
Then Bettman signs a television broadcast deal with the Outdoor Life Network, which changed its name to Versus. Ugh. Even though Versus does a good job with their coverage, especially during this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs, but nobody gets the channel! Fans can't keep up with the game if they can't watch the games in their homes.
The television contract for the NHL was up for bid at the end of this season. It was a golden opportunity for the NHL to re-unite with ESPN and get back into the homes of America. But Bettman was pleased with the coverage, for reasons unknown, and signed an extension with Versus.
The only good to come out of that deal is the weekend games that are broadcast on NBC (except during Preakness Stakes pre-race coverage, of course).
The Stanley Cup Final ratings plummeted this season. Probably because no one cares about teams from Anaheim and Canada, which really hurts the NHL because the Ducks and Senators are two tremendous hockey clubs. It's the market that kills these teams.
But now Bettman wants to add teams to Nevada and Missouri. Adding teams to markets who can care less about hockey instead of fixing the problems at hand regarding teams in their current markets.
How about fixing the Chicago Blackhawks? How about fixing the Boston Bruins? We need to have the heart and soul of the National Hockey League to rebuilt. We need an Original Six team to win the Stanley Cup (preferrably the New York Rangers). Believe it or not, the NHL needs a solid dynasty. The league needs another Edmonton Oiler, Montreal Canadien, or New York Islander-like run.
Gary Bettman is the worst commissioner in sports today, hands down. He needs to be replaced as soon as humanly possible. The league needs a commissioner who wants the NHL to be as big as the NFL, not as big as the WNBA.
It took over 138 minutes of hockey to find a winner in Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals between the Dallas Stars and Vancouver Canucks. Daniel Sedin set up twin-brother Henrik from behind the Dallas net at 18:06 of the fourth overtime , who slipped the puck by Marty Turco, and ended the sixth-longest playoff game in NHL history. Ironically, Henrik was the one who set up Daniel to open the scoring just over four minutes into the game.
In his playoff debut, Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo looked masterful in the extra frames, saving a mind-boggling 72 saves in all (76 shots by the Stars is a modern NHL record for one game).
The Stars had a chance early into the fourth overtime as a clearly exhausted Luongo toppled over in the crease, when he was seemingly untouched.
Luongo (acquired this previous offseason from Florida for Todd Bertuzzi) was not the one exhibiting fatigue as the play became much slower as the game carried into the night, not ending until almost 3:30 am on the east coast (I am guessing I am one of 10 people who watched the game until its conclusion on the eastern seaboard).
A game like this sets the tone for the remainder of the series. Dallas may not recover from a crushing defeat like this. However, luckily for Dallas, they have one player who will never give up and will continue to fight until he's down: Mike Modano.
Modano, ridiculously stripped of his captaincy this season, has a tremendous amount of heart and skill. He is a true leader and one that every player in the Stars' locker room can model themselves after.
But a win, in this case for Vancouver, could set the tone for the remainder of the playoffs. To come out in Game One and win an emotional and exhausting marathon, could set forth a momentum that could carry them all the way to hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup.
All in all, the Stanley Cup Playoffs have just begun. If this keeps up, we are in for a fantastic two months.
The 80th season in New York Rangers history began Thursday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was announced just before the puck was dropped, Jaromir Jagr had been named the 24th captain in the history of the franchise. Jagr is the first Ranger to wear the “C” on his jersey since Mark Messier retired with it after the 2003-04 season (there was no season in 2004-05 and there were three assistant captains with the Rangers in 2005-06).
Jagr couldn’t have started his reign as captain any better than he did. On his first shift, Jagr ripped a wicked wrist shot past Olaf Kolzig, 29 seconds into the game. The crowd at Madison Square Garden erupted. Jagr is coming off the best scoring season ever by a Ranger and looks like he wants a season equally as impressive.
Brendan Shanahan made his debut for the Blueshirts, and what a debut it was. In the second period, with the Rangers winning 2-1, Michal Rozsival found a wide open Shanahan. He broke away from the pack and scored, one-on-one against Kolzig. But Shanny wasn’t done.
In the third period, Petr Prucha’s backhand attempt was stopped by Kolzig but Shanahan was there to knock in the rebound. It was the second goal of the night for Shanahan and the 600th of his illustrious 19-year career. Shanahan became the 15th player to ever reach that mark. He is now just one goal shy of tying Jari Kurri for 14th on the All-Time NHL goal-scoring list.
Jagr is right on his heels. Jagr’s goal was his 592nd of his career and, in all likelihood, will become the 16th player to score 600. The new Broadway tandem ranks one and two among active scoring leaders in the NHL (1-Shanahan, 2-Jagr).
Many Ranger fans believe this could be a great one for the Blueshirts. Should opening night’s performance (5-2 win over the Washington Capitals) be a foreshadow of things to come, it will be just that.
Just a quick question - is it me, or is anyone else having trouble publishing their posts one time to make them look right? It will look ok when I'm entering in the text and pictures, but when I click "Post to Blog" - it will look completely different, sometimes the text will be in all bold or the title will be stuck at the bottom and there will be significant spacing between paragraphs?
I'd just like to know if anyone else is experiencing the same problem...Thanks guys.
How DiPietro's contract stacks up against other 10+ year deals
By Kevin Stewart
With the New York Islanders signing Rick DiPietro to a 15-year extension today, it made me start thinking about other notable double-digit year contracts. It also made me think about how they affected the corresponding franchises and players alike throughout the contract itself. Here's what I came up with off the top of my head:
- Magic Johnson - signed a 25-year contract with the Lakers in 1981 for $1 million per season starting in 1984. However, the Lakers introduced their salary cap and the contract was limited to 10 years. During that span, the Lakers won 3 NBA Championships and made 7 appearances in the NBA Finals.
- Alex Rodriguez - signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000 and became the highest player in Major League Baseball history. He played just three seasons with Texas, winning the American League MVP in 2003 while the team finished in last place. He was traded from the team in the winter of 2003 to the New York Yankees in return for Alfonso Soriano and the Rangers still pay a chunk of his salary. This past off-season, Soriano was traded to the Washington Nationals (where he is on the brink of a 40/40 season) in exchange for Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge, essentially leaving the Rangers with nothing from the signing of Rodriguez.
- Derek Jeter - signed a 10-year, $189 million extension with the New York Yankees in February of 2001 after the Yankees had won four out of the past five World Series titles. Since then, he has been named the Yankees' captain and has led the Yanks to two American League pennants and five consecutive American League Eastern Division titles (closing in on their sixth straight) since signing the deal. His name has also been mentioned in MVP talk for this 2006 season.
- Mike Krzyzewski- signed a lifetime contract (guaranteed through 2011) to coach Duke University's men's basketball program in 2001. Before that, Coach K had led Duke to three National Championships, four National Title games, and nine final fours with one since. He is the face of Duke basketball and they would not be where they were if not for him.
- Alexei Yashin - signed a 10-year, $87.5 million deal with the New York Islanders in 2001 and could be the biggest bust in franchise history. Since joining the Islanders, Yashin has not scored more than 32 goals in a season and hasn't tallied more than 75 points (both in his first season with the team in 2001-02). The Isles signed Yashin to the contract after he scored 40+ goals in his previous two seasons with the Ottawa Senators while missing a year between them.
- Daunte Culpepper - signed a 10-year extension with the Minnesota Vikings in 2003. But after Randy Moss departed to Oakland, Culpepper lost some of his fire and suffered a season-ending injury early in 2005. He was traded this past off-season to the Miami Dolphins and Brad Johnson is the Vikings starter once again.
- Charlie Weis - signed a 10-year contract extension with the University of Notre Dame in October 2005 to coach their football program. Weis coached the Fighting Irish to the Fiesta Bowl last year where they lost to Ohio State and the Irish are off to a 2-0 start in 2006 after being ranked #2 in the country in the pre-season.
- Rick DiPietro - signed an NHL-record 15-year contract extension through the 2022 season with the New York Islanders. DiPietro has played in just four NHL seasons and only two of them full. He is coming off a career high 30 wins in the 2005-06 season. After hiring and firing Neil Smith to become the general manager for the Isles, former goaltender Garth Snow became the GM and his first major move was signing an unproven youngster to the longest contract the NHL has ever seen. Looks like the Islanders want DiPietro to become the face, or should I say the mask, of the franchise.
The two names that immediately jump out at you are those of Yashin and DiPietro (and perhaps Weis). These names do not belong with those other names as far as huge contracts are concerned, and both those players were signed by the Islanders. This tel
Lengthy contracts have gone both north and south in the past. But in this day and age, I still think the signing of DiPietro today to a 15-year contract is one of the dumbest moves I have seen over the course of my lifetime. The Islanders will seriously be questioning this signing before 2010 (they have him signed through 2022).
Sources:
Hockeydb.com
Cnnsi.com
ESPN.com
NFL.com
Wikipedia.org
* Alex Rodriguez photo courtesy of askmen.com
* Daunte Culpepper photo courtesy of Andy Lyons/Getty Images
DiPietro signs record 15-year extension (not a typo)
By Kevin Stewart
New York Islanders new general manager and former goaltender Garth Snow really gave me a laugh today. The Islanders re-signed goaltender Rick DiPietro to a fifteen-year, yes 1-5, extension through the year 2022, the longest contract in the history of the National Hockey League. Thank you Snow for the comedy wake-up (this was almost as funny as waking up to find J.J. Redick had been arrested for drunk driving).
The first thing I do everyday when I wake up is go online and check ESPN.com to see what I have missed thus far in the world of sports. Usually my eyes are half open when I reach my computer so I was a bit skeptical of the headline. So I rubbed the cobwebs out of my eyes and splashed some water on my face to gain some composure and headed back to my computer. I learned my eyes had not fooled me.
Just like every other hockey fan who hears this for the first time, I was certainly befuddled. As a fan of the New York Rangers, I can’t help but snicker at the second bad move of the off-season by their rivals on the island (the first being the Isles signing former Rangers GM Neil Smith as their general manager only to fire him before making any moves in favor of Snow).
DiPietro is a fairly good goaltender who is young and certainly talented. But fifteen years, Garth? That is unheard of!
We all remember the last “big” signing the Islanders made in 2001 when they inked Alexei Yashin for ten years (boy, that sure has worked out). The questions that I’d like to ask Snow are just flowing through my head: What are you thinking? Are you serious? You realize how unproven this guy is? What if he gets hurt? What are you thinking? Are you guys still that upset about trading Roberto Luongo? You couldn’t sign him to a shorter and safer deal? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?
So this got me thinking, I am currently 22-years old and I will be 38 when DiPietro’s contract expires. In the next 16 years, I will hopefully get married, have kids, win the lottery a few times, maybe have grandkids if my kids make some stupid decisions which could lead to an appearance on the Jerry Springer show (never take that off the air – solid gold), buy a nice house and a couple cars, see my teams win a few championships including Henrik Lundqvist raise the cup before DiPietro, or I could die at a young age.
I cannot wait to hear Snow’s reasoning behind signing DiPietro to this lengthy extension. It’s going to be nearly impossible to trade him if they want to sometime down the road; who is going to want a player who has that many years on his contract? They can do whatever they want, but this is stupid.
It may not be the same sport, but it’s not like the guy is Magic Johnson (who signed a 25-year deal in 1981 with the Los Angeles Lakers; which was still ridiculous). It’s Rick DiPietro; not Patrick Roy, not Dominik Hasek. Enjoy your goaltender Long Island. We will all be laughing in Manhattan and everywhere else in the NHL.
Sports are my life. I'm a diehard New York Yankees, Giants, and Rangers fan as well as Tennessee Volunteers football and North Carolina basketball. I can't stand watching the NBA regular season.
I work at ESPN as a Production Assistant, which means I cut some pretty sick highlights.
I enjoy writing mostly about my favorite teams because they are what I am most passionate about.
My aspiration is to be a play-by-play broadcaster for Major League Baseball and the National Football League. I was a broadcaster for the New England Collegiate Baseball League's Torrington Twisters in 2004. The games streamed worldwide via internet.
to try and save itself, it is expansion. The NHL needs to contract or move teams rather than expand the league. The last three Stanley Cup Champions reside in California, North Carolina, and Florida. Three markets in which hockey is dead.
But now Bettman wants to add teams to Nevada and Missouri. Adding teams to markets who can care less about hockey instead of fixing the problems at hand regarding teams in their current markets.
crowd at Madison Square Garden erupted. Jagr is coming off the best scoring season ever by a Ranger and looks like he wants a season equally as impressive.
finished in last place. He was traded from the team in the winter of 2003 to the New York Yankees in return for Alfonso Soriano and the Rangers still pay a chunk of his salary. This past off-season, Soriano was traded to the Washington Nationals (where he is on the brink of a 40/40 season) in exchange for Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge, essentially leaving the Rangers with nothing from the signing of Rodriguez.
- Daunte Culpepper - signed a 10-year extension with the Minnesota Vikings in 2003. But after Randy Moss departed to Oakland, Culpepper lost some of his fire and suffered a season-ending injury early in 2005. He was traded this past off-season to the Miami Dolphins and Brad Johnson is the Vikings starter once again.
me.
