December 15, 2003
How To Ease Out The Messiah
Larry Brooks of the New York Post says that Glen Sather is creating turmoil in the Ranger locker room over the amount of ice time he's giving 43-year old hockey legend Mark Messier:
Saturday night in Toronto against a team of physically superior bullies that had kicked sand in the Rangers' faces during a home-and-home sweep two weeks ago, Sather gave Holik - demoted to the fourth line for the second straight night despite being the team's best player for the six preceding weeks - 3:10 of ice in the first period, 5:01 in the second, and 13:50 for the game. This while Messier was getting 6:36 in the first, 7:24 in the second and 19:57 on the night. This despite the obvious wear on Messier, whose game has predictably declined as the pace has picked up, the competition has become more fierce and opponents have begun to regularly bang him around rather than genuflect as they did while No. 11 was on his way to surpassing Gordie Howe.
No one - no one - understands what Holik did to earn his demotion. No one understands why Sather clumsily turned on Lindros in the wake of Saturday's 3-1 loss. No one understands why Lindros has bounced around from one line to the next, from center to wing and back again. Meanwhile everyone - everyone - on the team respects the way Lindros has responded to the ill-advised and counter-productive disrespect he has been shown from the head coach.
Messier getting manhandled physically isn't anything new. I can clearly recall the 1997 Eastern Confernce finals between the Flyers and the Rangers -- a series where Messier often went head to head with Lindros and didn't exactly come out with the best end of the deal. In fact, Lindors regularly pushed Messier around like a rag doll, inspiring the ESPN team covering the game to gush that perhaps a torch had been passed from Messier to Lindros.
In any case, carefully rationing the ice time of a 43-year old center sounds like a good idea -- whether or not that player is named Messier. Perhaps it's telling that on the same day this story ran, the New York Times has a profile of Lyon Messier, Mark's 16-year old son who is making his way through Canadian Junior hockey.
Meanwhile, Newsday's Arthur Staple thinks Sather is running out of options, especially since his incesant line juggling doesn't seem to be working. Check out the Hockey Rodent for a more detailed look at what ails the Broadway Blues. Here's one question he poses:
Is Tom Poti so irresponsible defensively that he hurts the team more than he faciliates the offense?
The answer is yes, just ask the folks in Edmonton who essentially did their best to run Poti out of town because of his defensive shortcomings.
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07:14 AM