Took NY Rangers teams that lacked a "traditional" hockey identity,and made the decisions to instill their coaching vision immediately. Overall physical team toughness, sticking up for each other, taking the body, aggressive-effective fore-checking system, and not going into a shell when ahead.
Gallant has also made the personnel decisions needed to implement his vision. Now all he needs is a dominant face-off player (a la Keenan's MacTavish) to have a more complete product. I see a lot of similarities to the Keenan experience.
I know it's early, but so far the new look Rangers pass the eye test!
What do you think?
Gallant is certainly intense, but also seems much more personable.
Now, his hand may have been forced by injuries, but I like where he seems to have settled with the line combos, and there seems to be something good happening with the team overall.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
I think Gallant has a chance to have a far greater impact than Keenan did when he took over what was already a veteran team and made it even more of a veteran team by the time the playoffs began.
One might argue (as I have frequently) that Keenan's demands shortened what could have been a 4-5 year cup window into a one year window, and if not for the early heroics of Mike Richter in Game 6 vs the Devils, the Rangers would have been blown out onto the Turnpike, and Keenan would have been a spectacular failure who ditched the franchise immediately. He was going to leave one way or another after that season.
In that sense, I think it's overly simplistic to analyze Keenan's contributions as "won a cup" without acknowledging the long term effects of his tenure. I'd also say I don't see Gallant as being that shortsighted.
He's an excellent coach. I'm glad he's here.
This.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
Keenan did win the Cup. He also came a millimeter away from blowing the ECF when he ignited a near-mutiny by yanking Richter and benching Leetch in Game 4.
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This thread is about the impact these two coaches had on the Rangers style of play.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
Keenan did win the Cup. He also came a millimeter away from blowing the ECF when he ignited a near-mutiny by yanking Richter and benching Leetch in Game 4.
I was too young, but my read of '94 was the Rangers should have beaten NJD/VAN in less than seven. Keenan nearly nuked it.
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In comment 15477076 Bigmoose53 said:
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This thread is about the impact these two coaches had on the Rangers style of play.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
Keenan did win the Cup. He also came a millimeter away from blowing the ECF when he ignited a near-mutiny by yanking Richter and benching Leetch in Game 4.
I was too young, but my read of '94 was the Rangers should have beaten NJD/VAN in less than seven. Keenan nearly nuked it.
While I agree that we should have beaten VAN in less than seven, I kind of felt like we were lucky to win against the Devils. Although like the Vancouver series, we were unlucky to lose Game 1 (how many games did we give up a late goal in that run), I felt like we were lucky to win Game 3 and were outplayed significantly in Games 5 and 6 (at least the first two periods of game six, I remember saying to myself all these years later that we were so lucky to be only down 2-0 after the first period in Game 6). More than that, Game 5, mutiny or not, really was one of those games were you could see the Devils and Lemare utilizing that trap that was going to give the league problems for close to a decade. Put in Brodeur to that equation, the fact that the Devils steamrolled through the playoffs the next year, I think we were fortunate to win that series.
My sports love for the early 1970's Rangers has never diminished. Those guys will always be my team. The Ratelle and Park trade has left a sour taste that gotten worse as the years have gone by not better. I still hold a grudge against Emile all these years later. But I agree that Gallent has an old school hockey coach "The Cat" style and it's been missing from the Rangers.
On an off topic note, I was listen to the Ron Duguay podcast and Mollie Walker who covers the Rangers for the Post was talking about the Igor chants after the 5 minute power play on Wednesday. She said it's so great for Rangers fans that they've gone from a franchise goalie with two syllables to potentially another franchise goalie with two syllables. Sort of intimating that the chant started with Henrick.
It did not. Ed-die Ed-die. The other grudge I’ll never let go of. Eddie was at the end of his career for sure. But Emile could have waited until the off season.
I sat in the Blue Seats whenever my father could afford to take me and get time off from work. I was not there this night but I was sports heartbroken listening on my trusty white plug in kitchen radio at the kitchen table like I did for so many MSG Rangers and Knicks home games in those days because they were blacked out pre cable. Cable may have existed at that point but it didn't in our house for a few more years. This Larry Brooks article from a month ago is behind a pay wall but here's a few clips:
It was historic, unforgettable and unprecedented. Forty-six years ago today at the Garden, a night like no other.
“Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!”
It was spontaneous. There were no social media campaigns, no word of mouth. It was just 17,000-plus wounded souls in unison chanting for Eddie Giacomin, the goaltender who had been waived to the Red Wings two nights earlier, more than 17,000 rooting against their beloved Rangers and for the beloved goaltender wearing the strange all-red costume of his new team.
It was, finally, as Brad Park remembered while talking to The Post on Monday, “The only game I ever threw…I think our whole team threw it.
“It never should have happened; we were all upset that Eddie was let go like that,” said No. 2, who, in a footnote to the story, played his final home game as a Ranger that night ahead of his and Jean Ratelle’s trade to the Bruins in exchange for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais a mere five days later. “It never should have happened.
“He was such a good guy. As a team it was kind of, ‘Are you kidding me?’
I might be wrong but I believe the Eddie chant was the first of it's kind in any sport? Certainly the first one I ever heard in the NYC area since I became a fan in 1965. Kind of like the 2 strike cheering started at Guidry's 18 strike out game in 1978. That one I was at. Another story for another day.
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In comment 15477850 Greg from LI said:
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In comment 15477076 Bigmoose53 said:
Quote:
This thread is about the impact these two coaches had on the Rangers style of play.
And Keenan - the "asshole", by inference "mentally unstable", or reviled by his players, coached the Rangers one year and won their only stanley cup since forever. In Rangers history, his one year stay was pretty significant no matter what anyone thinks of his personality.
Keenan did win the Cup. He also came a millimeter away from blowing the ECF when he ignited a near-mutiny by yanking Richter and benching Leetch in Game 4.
I was too young, but my read of '94 was the Rangers should have beaten NJD/VAN in less than seven. Keenan nearly nuked it.
While I agree that we should have beaten VAN in less than seven, I kind of felt like we were lucky to win against the Devils. Although like the Vancouver series, we were unlucky to lose Game 1 (how many games did we give up a late goal in that run), I felt like we were lucky to win Game 3 and were outplayed significantly in Games 5 and 6 (at least the first two periods of game six, I remember saying to myself all these years later that we were so lucky to be only down 2-0 after the first period in Game 6). More than that, Game 5, mutiny or not, really was one of those games were you could see the Devils and Lemare utilizing that trap that was going to give the league problems for close to a decade. Put in Brodeur to that equation, the fact that the Devils steamrolled through the playoffs the next year, I think we were fortunate to win that series.
Essex, thanks for the color. I've watched games 6 and 7 of the ECF - the Devils were definitely better in game 6 in the first and second, IIRC.
Absolutely. I just rewatched that entire game last week, the first 25-30 minutes of that game were absolutely awful and if not for Richter it would have been 5-0 Devils.
Keenan finally figured out it might make sense to get Kovalev on Messier's wing and from that point on it was the Messier, Leetch, Kovalev show.
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won game 6 in the first two periods. It will always be the Messier game but without Richter keeping them close when they were so badly outplayed before Messier took over it would have been over right there.
Absolutely. I just rewatched that entire game last week, the first 25-30 minutes of that game were absolutely awful and if not for Richter it would have been 5-0 Devils.
Keenan finally figured out it might make sense to get Kovalev on Messier's wing and from that point on it was the Messier, Leetch, Kovalev show.
I remember when Kovalev scored the goal near the end of the second, just staring at the tv, like we just scored instead of jumping up and down. That was how out of it I felt at the time in terms of how the game was going. But, it was weird, because in between the 2 and 3rd I was so pumped we got that goal and it really just ignited the Mess hat trick in the third.
I am not a hockey historian, but you would be hard pressed to find a better series than that one in the history of hockey.
1. Rangers with a 54 year drought
2. Bitter Rivals.
3. Three overtime games (1, 3, 7)
4. I believe two double OT games (3, 7).
5. Two games including game 7, a team scored in the final seconds to put it into OT.
6. Game 7 Double OT.
That is everything you want in playoff hockey.
No goalie has ever played any better than Richter in the second period of Game 6. The Devils were just bombarding him relentlessly and he just kept making saves. Kovy managed to get on by Brodeur just before the end of the period to give us hope, and then Messier worked his magic in the third.
I had plans to go to some Devils fans house for game 6 that fell through for some reason and I listened to it on the clock radio in my room.