New York Rangers: Five worst days in team history

The New York Rangers have provided us with many thrilling moments.  At the same time, there have been some horrible moments in Rangers history. Here are the five worst.

Finding five moments in New York Rangers history that will go down as worst days ever wasn’t that easy.  They highs have outnumbered the lows and for all of its faults, the franchise has been run pretty well for a number of years.

Some rules about what qualifies.  Individual games do not count. We’ve had our share of disappointing moments in the playoffs and regular season, but those are games.  Listing any of those overtime games to the Kings in 2014 or the seventh game of the 2015 Conference FInals would be easy.  But what about all of those playoff losses to the Islanders in the eighties?  That’s too simple.

It would be easy to include individual trades in this list, but we won’t.   God knows, the Blueshirts have made their share of bad deals with the Rick Middleton trade to the Bruins for Ken Hodge the worst ever.   However, if we included individual trades, that would take up most of the list

The same goes for draft picks.  Selecting Hugh Jessiman or Dylan McIlrath or Pavel Brendl could easily qualify as horrible moments in Rangers history, but again, with their history, this list could be nothing but bad draft picks.

In order to qualify, it needs to be a moment in time that had long-term ramifications.  It had to be a moment that gave you a sinking feeling when you read or heard about it.  It had to be a moment that shook your faith in the organization.

Here goes.

#1 Mark Messier leaves to sign with Vancouver

This was an unthinkable event and shook the team to its core. It was the summer of 1997 and  Messier was the face of the franchise.  Not only that, it came after the first year that Wayne Gretzky played with the Blueshirts.  The two 36-year old superstars had teamed to take the Blueshirts to the Conference Finals where they lost in five games to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Messier had played six seasons with the Rangers as their Captain.  The “Messiah” brought the 194 Stanley Cup to Broadway, but he also led the team to the post-season five times with two trips to the Conference Finals.  With Messier, they finished first in their Division twice and they won two Presidents’ Trophies,

It was a dispute between Messier and team president Neil Smith that resulted in his departure.  As a free agent, Messier was courted by many teams while the Rangers made one desultory offer of $4 million for one year.   Messier publicly said that he felt disrespected by the team and ended up signing  a three year deal with the Canucks for $6 million a year with an option for two more years.

Is Messier’s departure the reason that the Rangers went on to miss the playoffs for the next seven season?   He did return to play four more seasons after a disastrous tenure in Vancouver, but the damage had been done.

There’s no doubt that Smith knew what he had done when he let Messier leave.  That’s why the Rangers signed Joe Sakic to an offer sheet that was later matched by the Colorado Avalanche.  Perhaps if the team had been able to get Sakic, it would have been a much different story.

As it is, the Messier departure signaled the end of a highly competitive era for the Rangers.

#2 Jean Ratelle breaks his ankle

The 1971-72 New York Rangers were poised to break the great Stanley Cup drought.  They were a well balanced hockey team with a solid defense, four excellent lines and great goaltending.  They also had a top line that was determined to be remembered as one of the best lines in the history of the NHL.  Known as the GAG line, Vic Hadfield, Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert were simply unstoppable that season.

The GAG line was led by Jean Ratelle, their silky smooth center and team leader. After 63 games, he has scored 45 goals and added 64 assists for 109 points.  Projected over a 78 game season, he was headed towards a 54 goals, 79 assist season for a total of 135 points.

That goal total would had been exceeded by only one player in league history, Phil Esposito. That assist total had been achieved by only one player in NHL history, Bobby Orr.   Only Eposito and Orr had totaled more than 135 points in a season through the 1971-72 season.

Not only that, the Rangers had a record of 42-11-10 through their first 63 games. They stumbled to a 6-6-3 record after they lost Ratelle.  While they probably wouldn’t have caught the Bruins for first place overall, they would have finished with a better record.

Where the injury absolutely killed the Rangers was in the Finals against the Bruins.  Although Ratelle returned to play all six games of the series, he only had one assist and was shell of himself.   Three of the four Boston wins were by one goal.  Who knows what the impact would have been if the Rangers had a healthy Ratelle, the second best forward in the NHL, in action that series.

While the fact that the Rangers didn’t win the Cup in 1972 didn’t lead to any kind of immediate shake up, they wouldn’t make the Finals for another seven years and it played a role in the blockbuster deal between the Rangers and Bruins that sent Ratelle and Brad Park to Boston for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais, four years later.

A Cup win in 1972 would probably have meant no Bruins trade and no Phil Esposito in a Ranger uniform.  That trade led him to eventually becoming the Blueshirts’ General Manager for three tumultuous and ultimately unsuccessful seasons in the mid-eighties.

#4 Mike Keenan quits on the team

July 1994, the New York Rangers organization should have been basking in the glory of a Stanley Cup championship.  After ending 53 years of futility, the team’s only concern should have been the impasse between the NHLPA and management, that would result in the cancellation of half the season.

The team was ready to come back to defend their title and their chief mission was how to replace Glenn Anderson and Craig MacTavish who were set to leave the team as free agents.

Instead, turmoil reigned as coach Mike Keenan suddenly resigned, citing breach of contract.  It was the culmination of growing rift between Keenan and General Manager Neil Smith.  The two had grown so far apart, the reports were that the two weren’t speaking to each other during the playoffs.

Keenan had a five-year contract at a million dollars annually and Keenan called a press conference to announce his departure, citing the non-payment of a bonus as breach of contract.  Madison Square Garden responded that the breach was actually, just a one-day delay in the payment of the bonus.

Keenan’s departure had a ripple effect throughout the organization.  Most affected was Mark Messier who had a good relationship with the coach.  It drove a wedge between Messier and Neil Smith that became the reason that Messier left the team three years later to sign with Vancouver, a departure we covered at length elsewhere in this post.

With Messier at odds with Smith, it got worse later that month when the GM traded Esa Tikkanen, a Messier pal, to the Blues for Petr Nedved. Messier made Nedved’s life miserable and questioned his competitiveness.  Nedved was eventually traded to the Penguins along with Sergei Zubov.

So, when Mike Keenan broke his contract and abruptly resigned, it set into motion a series of events that included the trading of Zubov, a future Hall of Famer, and ultimately Messier’s departure for Vancouver.  The departure of Messier and Zubov helped contribute to the decline of the team and their missing the playoffs for seven years, leading to the great purge and the  trading of Brian Leetch.  Somehow, it’s all connected.

#5 Bryan Trottier becomes the Rangers coach

Many Ranger fans may not think of this as one of the worst days in team history, but think about it.  Not only was Trottier an utter fiasco as Rangers coach, hiring a former Islander who had tormented the Blueshirts for years was just unfathomable.

This has to be one of Glen Sather‘s oddest transactions as Ranger’s general manager.  The team was a perennial also-ran when it came to  making the playoffs and theirs was a merry-go-round of coaches,  In seven years, the Rangers had seven different coaches.  Colin Campell, John Muckler, John Tortorella, Ron Low, Bryan Trottier, Glen Sather and Tom Renney ruled the bench during that period.

After missing the playoffs for two seasons despite the highest payroll in the league, Sather axed Ron Low, his former Edmonton coach.   In his search for a replacement, he settled on Trottier after getting a 90-page handwritten response to a questionnaire that Sather had sent out to coaches interested in the job.

Trottier took over in the 2002-03 season and didn’t make it into February. The team won 21 of 54 games and Sather fired him, taking over behind the bench for the rest of the season.

Trottier had issues commanding the respect of his players and as a rookie coach, was clearly in over his head.  It didn’t help that he was vociferously booed by fans when introduced on opening night at Madison Square Garden.

Of all the boneheaded moves by Rangers management over the years, this one clearly was a headscratcher.

Honorable mentions

I am sure that all Rangers fans have their own selections for worst days in team history.  The waiving of Eddie Giacomin and his subsequent return to the Garden could certainly make that list.  When Ted Sator sent Pierre Larouche, Mike Rogers and Glen Hanlon to the minor leagues at the end of training camp could definitely qualify.   Another one could be the day that the NHL ruled in the Flyers’ favor and allowed the Quebec Nordiques to trade Eric Lindros to Philadelphia instead of New York.  That decision altered the future of the team for many years to come.

Please feel free to weigh in with your own day of disaster for the team, just remember, no individual trades or games please!