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New York Rangers Daily Dose: Al Arbour’s Passing, Rangers Snubbed

By Patrick Comia

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Hey New York Rangers fans.

Welcome back to the Saturday edition. Here’s what we wanted to share with you all:

Legendary Islanders coach passes away- NHL.COM

It’s with heartfelt sorrow that we mention the passing of Islanders coach Al Arbour.

Under his leadership behind the bench, he led the Islanders in two separate stints. His first was from 1974 to 1986. In that time, Arbour had not missed the playoffs except for his first year as head coach (1973-1974).

Also, he helped lead the Islanders to four five straight Stanley Cup appearances, winning four times. From 1980-1983, Arbour saw his teams hoist the Cup at the Nassau Arena, and were the dynasty that many of the NHL franchises compare themselves to, in terms of dynasties.

In 1984, they could have had a fifth but lost to the next dynasty in wait, the Edmonton Oilers led by a young Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. His second stint behind the bench was from 1989 to 1994, seeing the post season three times.

Arbour’s last appearance behind the Islanders bench was for one game. During the 2007-08 season, Islanders management called upon the legendary coach one more time. His team won 3-2 over the Pittsburgh Penguins. That night, he coached his 1,500th game for the Islanders, and earned his 740th win.

Oddly, he only won the Jack Adams Award once in his coaching career in 1979, as the NHL’s Best Head Coach that season.

Arbour has four additional Stanley Cup rings as a player with the Chicago Blackhawks (1961), Detroit Red Wings (1954), and the Toronto Maple Leafs (1962, 1964). He played 17 seasons in the NHL from 1954 to 1971 with four teams, including the St. Louis Blues.

He will be forever remembered, and one of the pioneers in coaching for future years.

On behalf of the Rangers community, we salute you Al Arbour! Rest in peace!

ESPN’s Burnside snubs the Rangers in dream Stanley Cup matchups this season- ESPN.com

It’s a rare thing to take hockey seriously on the ESPN network, especially since they discontinued tv coverage, sometime ago.

However, when scanning through stories about the NHL on Google, this struck a chord.

On Thursday, Scott Burnside wrote an article about five dream matchups he would like to see in the Stanley Cup Final next June.

And let me just say, some of his picks are outrageous and borderline senile. Among his picks, he has listed an all-Canada matchup between the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens. He even goes on to say:

"The Habs, of course, are led by the best goalie in the world in Carey Price…"

Whooh, slam the breaks.

There’s a goalie in New York named Henrik Lundqvist, remember him? He was one-win away from returning to the Stanley Cup Final last season. He has led the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final, in three of the past four seasons.

Hello?!?!?!?

Another prediction was the “out-there” matchup of the Nashville Predators and Columbus Blue jackets. No offense, in the future, this may become reality. But next year, is going to be too soon!

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Among other teams he mentions were the San Jose Sharks vs. Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins vs. St. Louis Blues, and Anaheim Ducks vs. Washington Capitals.

It was like Burnside pinned post-it notes with team names on a dart board, and blindly threw darts and made his choices that way.

Oh, and the Rangers were mentioned only once in his article. Additional snubs were Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, and last year’s runner-ups Tampa Bay Lightning.

In this writer’s opinion, ESPN should stick to something they do know all about: LeBron James.

Next: J.T. Miller's Top Goals of 2014-15

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