Living Off Someone Else's Past

So all over the New York Ranger Universe, Ranger fans got a chance to relive that happy moment of the Rangers finally putting an end to curse of 1940 by defeating the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 2-1 and win the Stanley Cup. Not going to begrudge any Ranger fan who enjoyed their chance to revisit that moment in time.

But can I ask exactly how long are Ranger fans are going to be willing to let Cablevision live off a cup that they have exactly zero to with? After 15 years it is time to put 1994 away and not allow Cablevision to live off this cup win.

Really if you look at things then you see that what our "friends" at MSG have done is trade "1940" for "1994". 15 years is too long a time for a franchise to be living in the past.

Really think about the last 15 years for a second because there is another 15 year anniversary coming up that I really doubt any Ranger, Knick or New York sports fan period will want to celebrate. I am talking about the 15th anniversary of Cablevision partnering with ITT to purchase Madison Square Garden.

Just about 6 weeks after the Rangers had their celebration, Cablevision took over and the Ranger universe has been a huge mess ever since. Yet year after year we get to see reminders about the 1994 team whether it is retiring someone's number or the folks at MSG or Rangers.com bringing it up.

How about for a 15th year anniversary of Cablevision's ownership that MSG host a highlight show of all the Ranger accomplishments on their watch. They can show Dave Checketts telling us "How long do we have to pay (Messier) for that cup win?" from 1997.

Why they can show us 7 years of games where the Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention. How about highlights from 7 different press conferences introducing new Ranger coaches?

Then there is that special on Neil Smith and how he emptied out the prospect pool trading them off for guys like Marty McSorley or THE Nathan Lafayette (cmon you remember his hitting the post in Game 7 don't you?).

How about a mini-marathon about free agent signings like Bruce Driver, Valeri Kamensky, Zdeno Ciger, and everyone's favorite Dmitri Kalinin. MSG can pull out great plays from Jozef Balej, Fedor Fedorov and Pavel Brendl.

And for fight fans who can forget Theo Fleury taking on the San Jose Shark's mascot in the most epic of battles. All this and more for the anniversary of Cablevision owning the Rangers.

No wonder why Cablevision and the Rangers trot out the 1994 Stanley Cup finals for when they want to show Ranger highlights. It is very sad to realize that 15 years after the Cup win that there really is no highlight of their own to show Ranger fans.

It is a lot easier than tryin to explain how since 1994 there have been 16 different teams that have gotten a shot at the Stanley Cup and none of them are the Rangers. The Rangers trot out excuse after excuse as to why they to this day are not annual cup contenders.

We get told every year that the Rangers are going to "retool" with the eventual goal of winning the Stanley Cup but at what point can we ask when they are going to stop retooling and just rebuild?

The 2009-10 season will be the tenth year of Glen Sather's leadership of the Rangers; we get to see other teams firing their General Managers after 3-4 seasons for failing to advance their team but not the Rangers. When in doubt just pull out the 1994 Cup finals, bring out Mikey, Mess, Graves and Leetch to remind fans of days long past.

Sorry but I do not want to see anymore 1994 reruns until after the Rangers win their next Stanley Cup.

I just hope it won't be in 2048.

(Messier courtesy of the New York Daily News)