One year after Dan Girardi’s long, 11-year stint with the New York Rangers ended, we can start to look back at his time on Broadway and smile.
It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine with Dan Girardi.
If the New York Rangers have had many players with rollercoaster-like careers, the Welland, Ontario native’s was reminiscent of Kingda Ka.
Girardi began his Rangers career as an undrafted free agent. An offensive defenseman by trade in juniors with the Barrie Colts, Guelph Storm and London Knights, he was signed by the Rangers and played with the Wolf Pack in 2005-06. After playing well in his second year in Hartford, Girardi was called up and was never to be sent to the AHL again.
Once he got to the NHL, then-coach John Tortorella made Girardi buy into filling the role of a shutdown, defensive defenseman. Credit to Girardi, he did, and he did it well.
Girardi would continue to improve year after year, becoming one of the league’s best success stories. In 2012, this was cemented when he was named an NHL All Star. The entire New York Rangers’ fan base felt like they had made the team themselves. Girardi was one of us.
Girardi was a warrior in red, white and blue. There was not a single shot that he was afraid to get in front of. And for his first eight full NHL seasons, despite finishing in the NHL’s lead for blocks twice and in the top 10 every single year, Girardi only missed five games. That is not to mention that he missed a total of just 32 contests in 11 years.
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Girardi played more playoff games in the Rangers’ uniform than any other skater. More than Leetch. More than Messier.
The decline came pretty rapidly. It started with overtime in game one of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final and it continued into 2014-15 and got worse and worse over the last two years of his Rangers tenure. It got to a point where it was flat-out painful to watch.
On Blue Line Station, we were very vocal about how the Rangers needed to buy Girardi out of his deal. Every Rangers blog was on the same page with that notion. For me — and maybe for others, too — their were two overlying reasons why I said what I said.
The first was so the Rangers would free themselves of an awful contract. The second was that I wanted to be able to do what I am doing today; think back fondly of Girardi’s wonderful Rangers tenure.
Girardi will go down as one of my all time favorite Rangers because he busted his butt on every single play. If every player on the team had his heart, there would be a yearly parade down the Canyon of Heroes. The fact of the matter is that it just wasn’t working here anymore. His body wasn’t living up to his heart.
It was nice getting to sit back and watch him do well in the postseason this year. Except for a few plays here and there, he looked good. And as long as it doesn’t interfere with the Blueshirts, I hope he continues to find success.
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Because after all, his Rangers career was one of the bright spots of an exceptional era of New York Rangers hockey.