After his 2004 fire sale, Glen Sather had one marquee player, Jaromir Jagr, to put fans in the seats of Madison Square Garden. Since 2005, Sather has been on misguided odyssey to bring big name players to New York in the salary cap era. Only two of his big free agent acquisitions from last summer have panned out. Gaborik and Prospal have been not disappointed. Too bad the same cannot be said for Brashear, Kotalik and Higgins.
Sather managed to offload the under performing and not inconsiderable contracts of Kotalik and Higgins and get some value in return in Olie Jokinen. Kotalik was supposed to be the point man that the Rangers had been looking for to ignite their powerplay. God knows Wade Redden hadn't. Getting Jokinen and Prust in return for Kotalik and Higgins was a masterstroke second only to offloading Gomez on Montreal for Higgins and McDonagh. Let's hope McDonagh pans out better then Higgins.
Higgins was the local kid Sather was banking on to play left wing and add some grit. I don't really blame Higgins or Kotalik for their lack of production. A weak defense and constant line changing didn't help either player establish himself. It still doesn't exonerate Sather. The fans still want Sather fired, especially because he signed Brashear. Brashear was by far Sather's worst of last off season.
Because he signed Brashear, Sather could hardly resign his best penalty killer and 3rd/4th line center Blair Betts. Afterall, during the playoffs Donald (then a Capital) Brashear had viciously broken Bett's orbital bone. Keeping Betts would hardly make for locker room harmony. Sather could have resigned perfectly adequate fighter Colton Orr for less money.
Sather lost his best penalty killers in Betts and Sjostrom and a better fighter in Colton Orr all because of Brashear's perceived intimidation factor. Before a quarter of the season had gone by, it was apparent to all that Brashear was a shadow of his former self as both an enforcer and fighter. Nice going, Glen.
The Rangers now find themselves on the outside looking in on a playoff berth. If they do make the playoffs, what's the point? Even if they finished seventh or eighth, they'd wind up having to play Washington or New Jersey. They be eliminated in the first round. Perhaps in an embarrassing sweep. To what purpose? So Sather can keep his job and Dolan can get his playoff money and then raise ticket prices for next season? As long as Sather remains, nothing will change.
