January 29, 2003
Sather's Scapegoat
With the honorable choice of resigning and shouldering the blame for the persistently disappointing play of the New York Rangers an impossibility, team General Manager Glen Sather instead took the easy way out and fired rookie head coach Bryan Trottier instead:
The move comes after New York dropped a 5-2 road decision to Atlanta on Tuesday. The loss was the Rangers' third straight to the woeful Thrashers this season by a combined 16-7 score. "After the last three games we made the decision that the team is sliding in the wrong way," Rangers general manager Glen Sather said during a conference call. "I just felt that I had to do something and had to do it quickly if we were going to salvage the season."
The Rangers - who were idle Wednesday - said they won't name a new coach until prior to the Rangers' game Thursday against Colorado. Assistants Jim Schoenfeld and Terry O'Reilly and director of player personnel Tom Renney are the likely successors.
Just last week, Trottier, perhaps the greatest player to ever don the "bleu, blanc, et orange," returned to the the Islanders home rink for the first time as Rangers head coach, and his players responded with a 5-0 shutout. This is nothing short of tragic for Trottier, who if he simply stayed put in Colorado this past offseason, would most likely be the head coach of the Avalanche right now. And with injuries knocking Mike Richter, Brian Leetch, and Pavel Bure from the lineup at one time or another, it hardly seems fair that Trottier should have to take the fall.
On NHL2Night a few minutes ago, Sather said you can't shy away from hiring somebody because you have a history of a hotly contested rivalry. But know this: if Trottier had been a Rangers great, he would have never been fired this quickly. If there's any justice in the world, Sather and his spendthrift ways willl get booted out of Manhattan in the offseason, and shipped back to Alberta via air freight.
UPDATE: Over at Hockeybird, Pete Rocha is dancing on Trottier's grave.
Captain Sather Lashes Himself To The Mast: After determining that Trottier wasn't the answer, Sather has decided to get hands on with the situation and coach the team himself. I wonder if Sather shouldn't have hired himself to coach the team in the first place, rather than blasting a hole in the careers of Trottier and ex-Rangers coach Ron Low.
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