Tom Renney was fired today by the New York Rangers. This was an obvious and predictable decision by New York Ranger management who has seen only 2 wins in their past 12 games played.
The Rangers replaced Tom Renney with John Tortorella who is about as badass as you can get. The Ranger team that seemed like they were on vacation coasting during the season will now be sent to boot camp under Tortorella. The big question is: How soon will Tortorella take to impact the team, instantly or next season?
Tom Renney was a great coach over the past four seasons for the Rangers. He brought pride and respect back to an organization who seemingly just went out and bought every high priced free agent and hoped that would win them championships.
Tom Renney put together an amazing defensive system in New York that was backstopped by one of the leagues finest in Henrik Lundqvist. Unfortunately for the system and for Renney himself, the amazing defense came at the sacrifice of the offense.
The New York Rangers offense was/is anemic. The Rangers made the mistake of letting two offensive, yet aging juggernauts in Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan walk. Granted they are at the ends of their careers, but they would have given you a minimum of 50 goals between the two of them on the season. Would it have been so bad to let the two end their careers in New York?
Now, the only offensive threat the Rangers have is Nikolai Zherdev. But without any help for Zherdev, he is limited to what he can accomplish. I expect a big trade deadline and/or offseason for the Rangers. There are big names potentially up for grabs via trade or free agency; Vincent Lecavalier, Marian Hossa, Martin St. louis, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Marian Gaborik to name a few.
Renney needed to be fired… that team has been playing poorly ever since the first month of the season. Not sure how much Torts will be able to turn things around but at least Montreal is falling apart too to give them some company!
Swapping links works for me, just know that I don’t focus solely on hockey but bounce around between that, baseball and football.