I remain convinced the New York Rangers will hoist the Cup this spring after watching them defeat the beat-up but talented Detroit Red Wings 2-1 at the Garden Wednesday night.
I went as a guest of The Heckler who is a way bigger Ranger fan than me. The Heckler has recently formed a connection with a season ticket holder who has a pair on the aisle in section 329. The guy unloads his seats with regularity and according to The Heckler asks below market value in return. They do all their business via Pay Pal.
After an early dinner at The Meatball Shop, we had a few rounds at Boss Tweeds on Essex and then Jack Demsey’s on 33rd.
John Amirante’s rendition of the anthem was spectacular. Unlike fans of the city‘s other pro sports teams, the Rangers crowd is fully assembled and ready to go when the anthem is performed. The 7:30 PM faceoff allows those with a regular day job a little extra time to get there.
There’s no team the Rangers should fear before reaching the finals. They lack the firepower of the Penguins but are more balanced. They have a great goalie and a great captain in Ryan Callahan. It was the guy wearing the “C” who scored the game winner on a screamer in OT.
The Rangers also have toughness. And when I say toughness, I don’t mean the kind of ugly display two nights earlier when the Blueshirts opened the game against the Devils with a choreographed riot.
Torts posted an opening lineup to match the Devil trio of punchers with three of the same. A three-on-three fight with just three seconds elapsed left blood on the ice and little accomplished beyond the distasteful spectacle that we now know does damage to the human brain. Faces were broken and the fans stood and cheered. Torts would later say his hand was forced but he could have easily started his top line to skate around the Devil goon squad.
If you read John Branch’s Times series on hockey fighting a few months ago, one should wince when gloves drop and haymakers connect. Branch will win a Pulitzer for his efforts. The NHL’s reaction to the groundbreaking revelations contained in the work borders on criminal. Soon the League will be forced to address it.
The big story here Wednesday of course was Gang Green’s acquisition of Tim Tebow for a couple of low picks and cash. The swift removal of Tebow from Denver was predictable. Where he ended up was anything but.
The Jets will tell you Tebow’s sudden availability for a relatively low price attracted them because of the unique and occasional wrinkle he’ll add on offense. No doubt Tebow’s role will start out that way. To the roars of the home crowd, Tebow will run out on third down and take the snap in wildcat formation. If it’s the Patriots defense on the other end (or others who have already cracked Tebow‘s code), the play will get stuffed.
That’s all fine. Tebow adds a new dimension. He’s a genuinely refreshing character with great locker-room attributes. He joins a team that badly needs leadership. The real problem here is that the Jets already have a young starting quarterback who lacks the maturity and makeup to respond positively to the not-so-veiled challenge to his authority.
It is so beyond predictable to see how this plays out. Sanchez struggles. He hangs his head. The bad eggs locked in here (Holmes, Cromartie) will continue to yap unproductive nonsense. The Jet crowd will demand more Tebow, more Tebow, less Sanchez, less Sanchez – until it devolves into a bigger mess than the one that took down the 2011 season.
Francesa believes the Jets made the deal for Tebow without any rational consideration of the complications it could cause. “Give the Jets a chance an opportunity to embarrass themselves from a football standpoint – and they’ll will never pass it up. With them, it’s not about winning. The first priority is to fill the building and sell the merchandise. That’s why they’re always after the guy with the most sizzle. There are people in the league right now who are laughing at the Jets. It turns your team into a colossal joke. It turns the team into a dysfunctional mess.”
I suppose it’s possible Tebow will come in handy should Sanchez sputter. The plan pre-Tebow was to back up Sanchez with Drew Stanton. It’s just very hard to imagine how a franchise that has such constant tension among its key parts can work through all of this in an orderly manner.
Trusting Rex to convert the conflicts presented by Tebow’s place on the depth chart into anything but more laughable instability is impossible to do.
I’d love to think some of the magic Tebow brought to the final couple months of the Bronco season can be pulled out of a hat here too. But the track record of the Jet organization under the guidance of Woody Johnson and Rex Ryan makes it feel like a publicity stunt. That’s what Broadway Joe Namath called it when asked for his reaction to the deal. “I’m baffled. I just think they’re kind of mixed up over there, and I’m talking about the folks that are making the decisions…It certainly seems like they’re trying to make noise, get recognition. Well, win some games, win a championship [and] you get recognition.”
For the record, the Jets are only obligated to pay Sanchez guaranteed money for two more seasons. The much-discussed, new three-year extension was billed by the team as a “commitment” to Sanchez, but it was actually a restructuring that guaranteed 2013 but leaves ’14, ’15 and ’16 completely at the discretion of the Jets at a relatively cheap $12.5 mil per. Should the Tebow experiment completely demoralize Sanchez as some fear, he’d be easily trade-able given the desperate need at the position by teams that lose QB’s during a season.