Monday, July 13, 2009

ESPN Predicts Rangers to Finish 7th

Terry Frei at ESPN makes his predictions for the Eastern Division for the upcoming season...

7. New York Rangers
Now having said that (with apologies for stealing Gary Bettman's pet phrase), one of the most intriguing stories in the league will be tracking Marian Gaborik's work with the Rangers in the midst of Glen Sather's major reconstruction. There is no questioning Gaborik's talent and the fact that the Wild never took complete advantage of it under Jacques Lemaire, but given the Rangers' spotty free-agent track record and Gaborik's medical file, this could turn out to be anything from a brilliant move to a complete disaster with five years of cap effects. If he's finally over those linked hip and groin issues for good, look out. If not, they'll be pining for Scott Gomez. (Just kidding. Kind of.)

...Gaborik's mentality is going to be tested just as much as his hip next season as pretty much every hockey pundit is saying the Rangers fate rests with him.

1 comment:

Brian said...

I'm not exactly thrilled with having Lemaire back in NJ, and since he coached Gaborik for his entire career, he will know exactly how to stop him. Hopefully Tortorella can get creative with how he uses Gaborik against NJD.