Rangers Are Back Under Control

Strange things are going on in the Big Apple.

The New York Rangers are signing Czechs instead of handing out checks.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist probably has a higher approval rating than New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

And Eastern Conference contenders may have to give their regards to Broadway come Stanley Cup playoff time, instead of singing another chorus of “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You.”

In case anyone missed the seemingly weekly Ranger broadcasts on OLN -- and according to national TV ratings, many have -- the team other general managers and owners love to ridicule appears to be back in business, rather than being bad for business.

At the very least, the Rangers are again looking down at non-playoff teams instead of commiserating with them. They have not qualified for the playoffs in seven seasons but lead the Atlantic Division, having chased down the Philadelphia Flyers last month.

A new collective-bargaining agreement helped make this happen because of its new $39-million salary cap, which saved the Rangers from themselves. The team had a $70-million payroll during the 2003-04 season. But Don Maloney, the team’s assistant general manager, also credited a shift in philosophy.

“After years of continual disappointment, underachievement, spending a ton money, we said enough,” Maloney said. “We had to do it right. We had to build from within, try to acquire some assets and develop some assets instead of giving them away.”

What Maloney doesn’t say, but others around the team do, is the shift in power. Glen Sather, the team’s president and general manager, is said to have less of a hand in the day-to-day operations. In fact, Sather rarely makes himself available to the New York media that has hammered him, often with good cause. After ending a 53-year drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1994, the Rangers slipped rapidly from champions to being Exhibit A for all that was financially wrong with the NHL. They paid Halliburton-sized contracts and got Enron-like returns.

The Rangers now sit with a tidy $34-million payroll -- or $11 million less than the five-year deal Sather handed center Bobby Holik in 2002 -- with talent such as Lundqvist, who helped Team Sweden to the Olympic gold medal, and Petr Prucha, one of seven Czech players on the roster.

“Let’s face it, we gave everybody lots of ammunition,” Maloney said. “The [old] CBA allowed us to go out and pay whatever we had to pay to accumulate assets. After we won in 1994, then we began to chase to get it again. The craziness started, giving up draft picks, first, second, third-round picks.”

Maloney, however, experienced an epiphany at the 2003 draft. “We were sitting there and we had one pick in the first three rounds and the New Jersey Devils had eight, and they had just won the Stanley Cup,” Maloney said. “Things were out of whack.”

A bit of good fortune has helped.

Prucha, a 23-year-old rookie, arrived ahead of schedule and has 25 goals. It also helped that the Ducks had to trim their payroll, meaning Steve Rucchin and Petr Sykora came to the Rangers fairly cheap.

However, the biggest gift was Lundqvist. The Rangers have searched for years to find an heir to Mike Richter in net. It didn’t figure to be Lundqvist this season. He was ticketed for an out-of-town opening, having never played in North America.

“You need phenomenal goaltending,” Maloney said. “Average goaltending doesn’t cut it. If you don’t get better-than-average goaltending, you can’t win. We knew Henrik was good in Europe, but we didn’t know how he would do with the smaller rinks. In Europe, the game is more like chess, moving the puck around. Here, there is lots of activity in front of the net.”

Before Monday’s games, Lundqvist, who turned 24 last week, was among the top two in goals-against average and save percentage.

While the Rangers went free-agent hunting the last two summers, the eight players who figure prominently in their success this season seem to be bargain-bin pickups compared to the days where any contract was acceptable -- the Rangers’ taking on such hefty contracts of players such as Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure and Alex Kovalev.

“I would say there was probably little attention paid to chemistry in previous years,” Maloney said. “The philosophy was, money was no object. It was whoever was available. Grab Pavel Bure. He wasn’t the solution, so get Alex Kovalev, on and on and on, one big name after another. The mix was never right. Now we have guys who are not necessarily more skilled, but they do a lot of the dirty work. We were chasing and chasing that Cup and, eventually, the light bulb clicked on for all of us.”

Olympic Flames or Flame Out?

They partied hearty in Stockholm and felt pretty good about themselves in Helsinki after last month’s Olympic hockey tournament that produced dazzling play.

It also produced some monumental flops -- fans up north were left wailing Oh, Canada and the only miracle for Team USA may be that no hotel rooms were trashed by players.

But there is work to be done before the NHL takes another Olympic break, and the future of NHL players in the Olympics is in doubt. The league has committed its players to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, but not after that.

Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said league officials are already working with the Vancouver Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation to come up with a more user-friendly format.

The 15-day break not only compressed the NHL regular-season schedule, it condensed the Olympic tournament. That led to a grueling schedule -- six games in eight days -- and forced the five Detroit Red Wings who played for gold-medal-winning Sweden to miss the team’s first game after the break, against the San Jose Sharks.

“The fact that the Games are going to be played in North America means the travel will be a lot easier for everyone [in the NHL],” Daly said. “But we are working to make the format better. We realize the hockey tournament will be the gem of the 2010 Olympics.”

Whether this goes beyond 2010 isn’t clear. Team officials are unhappy about injuries that could affect the NHL playoff race. Dominik Hasek (Ottawa), Pavel Demitra (Kings), Alexander Frolov (Kings), Simon Gagne (Philadelphia), Sami Salo (Vancouver) and Mattias Ohlund (Vancouver) are key players on playoff contenders who have missed games because of injuries suffered in the Olympics.

Even before the Olympics, Philadelphia Flyer officials were not happy about Peter Forsberg’s choosing to risk aggravating a groin injury by playing for Sweden.

“We are concerned about the injuries and we have talked to teams about this,” Daly said. “That all goes into the mix in deciding to go beyond 2010. But we feel this is good for our game.”