On July 13 in Rangers history: Righting a wrong as Messier returns

What happened on July 13 in the history of the New York Rangers

For many fans of the New York Rangers, the reason for the longest playoff drought in franchise history was the departure of Mark Messier on July 30,  1997.  The dream combination of Messier and Wayne Gretzky had gotten the Blueshirts to the Conference Finals where they lost the Philadelphia Flyers.  Things were looking good for the Rangers’ future and boom, Mark Messier became a Vancouver Canuck.

Three losing seasons followed along with two coaching changes and ultimately, a total housecleaning of upper management.  The Madison Square Garden Corporation went out and hired Glen Sather as the new general manager.  His first move was to hire Ron Low as his coach. His second move happened on this date in 2000, when he signed Mark Messier to a two-year, $11 million contract.

The 39-year-old Messier appeared at a Manhattan press conference and tearfully promised a return to glory.   He issued a guarantee, reminiscent of his pledge before Game Six of the Eastern Conference FInal in 1994.  Messier said, “I’ll guarantee we’re going to make the playoffs. I don’t think anybody will be disappointed over the next couple of years what will happen here in New York.”

Well, we all know how that worked out.  The Captain played four more seasons with the Rangers, but they didn’t make the playoffs.  It wasn’t until after Messier retired and passed the torch to Jaromir Jagr that they returned to the postseason.

In his first season back he scored 24 goals and 67 points, better numbers than he posted in his three seasons in Vancouver. He didn’t reach those totals again in his last three years and in his last season the team posted its  second worst record in an 82 game season.  Not only that, Messier was there when the Rangers purged the roster in March 2004, trading away Alex Kovalev, Petr Nedved, Vladimir Malakhov, Martin Rucinsky and Messier’s buddy, Brian Leetch.  It was a disappointing way to end a fabulous career.

Back to hockey?

On this date in 2005, the NHL and the NHL Players Association negotiating teams reached a tentative deal to end the lockout that cost fans the entire 2004-05 season.  The lockout had begun on September 16, 2004 and the season was formally cancelled on February 16, 2005.

The two sides began marathon negotiating sessions with the 2005-06 season in jeopardy.  They met for 10 straight days and after an all-night session they reached an agreement in principle. The deal was not finalized until a ratification vote by the players and a similar vote by the owners.

Today’s birthdays

19 NHL players have been born on July 13 with four former Rangers in that mix.

Bob Carpenter was born on this date in 1963 in Beverly, Massachusetts.  The center was one of the best U.S. born players of his generation, the second selected in the first round of the Entry Draft, the first to score 50 goals in a season and the first player to jump directly from a U.S. high school to the NHL.  He had a brief stay with the Rangers after one of general manager Phil Esposito’s most misguided trades.  He sent Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller to the Washington Capitals for Carpenter who had clashed with coach Bryan Murray.  When he scored only two goals in 28 games and with the boo birds gathering, Esposito traded him to the Los Angeles Kings for 35 year old Marcel Dionne.  Carpenter never was a big scorer again in the NHL, but he played another 13 seasons mostly as a defensive specialist.

Rick Chartraw was born on this date in 1954 in Caracas, Venezuela.  He bears the distinction of being the only NHL player born in Venezuela where his father worked as an engineer, but as a child he moved to Erie, Pennsylvania. He played most of his career with the Montreal Canadiens where he won four Stanley Cups.  He came to the Rangers in January, 1983 on a waiver claim from the Los Angeles Kings.  He played only 30 games in New York  before being traded to Edmonton.

Bill Collins was a right winger who was born on this date in 1943 in Ottawa, Ontario.  He played 768 games in the NHL including 50 with the Rangers in the 1975-76 season.  He was actually a Ranger property in 1964, but never made it to the NHL and ended up being an expansion pick by the Minnesota North Stars in1967.   He finally made it back to the Rangers when he accompanied John Davidson in a trade to New York in 1975.

Dan Fritsche was born on this date in 1985 in Parma, Ohio.  He was traded to New York after playing five seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets.  He was part of the deal that sent Nikolai Zherdev to New York in exchange for Fedor Tyutin. The center played 16 games with the Rangers, then was flipped to the Minnesota Wild.