Tortorella Vs Renney! Prucha, Zherdev, Lets Get The Story Straight!

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Although this has no bearing on this season, I feel this is something that should be addressed. It is an issue that has bothered me all of last season and this off season.

I have read several articles about former players of the New York Rangers and have had many conversations with many of you here on bleacher about players that are on and where on the Rangers team.  

Coaching has taken a major part in the Rangers roster for so many years. From who is signed, traded or just let go, and it has been a recurring issue, where players that have the talent to be playing top line for any team, THAT end up riding the bench and then traded.

In 2005/06 season Ranger fans fell in love with a rookie player named Petr Prucha. In his first year Petr scored 30 goals and had 17 assists.  His energy ,toughness, determination and drive were something Ranger fans have not seen from their Ranger players in a long time.

In his second year Prucha scored 22 goals and 18 assists.  He was reliable, and he played his heart out.  But in 2007 his numbers dropped, along with his playing time.  From the start of the season coach Renney placed Prucha on the third line and eliminated him from the power play.  It wasn’t long before Prucha was not even in the lineup. 

Come the 2008/09 season, Renney brings in his pet from Vancouver Markus Naslund and Prucha is a playing the sidelines.  He plays only 28 games for the Rangers and later in the season is traded to Phoenix. 

There are fans out there that will say, well he fell off and was not playing up to par.  This is so far from the truth it is not even funny.

Ranger fans look at stats and nothing else. For the most part, this is what a large majority of hockey fans do. They just see that a guy isn’t scoring and demand he should be traded.  Never once taking a look at what is happening to the player by the coach, which is the real reason for their decline in goals.

The same thing happened last year to Nikolai Zherdev. But we will get to him later.

Prucha ended up playing 3^rd and 4^th line with players that were not even worthy of playing on his line.  Half the time he was in the offensive zone with the puck waiting for his teammates to catch up.  Why was he not playing were he should have been playing, which was the second and first line.  But Ranger fans do not realize this nor do they take note of it.

Here is a player that scores 30 goals and 22 goals in his first two years. And instead of building a team around the youngster, he ends up not even in the line up!

This was all about coach Renney and had nothing to do with Petr Prucha’s playing ability. Renney turned this team into a disaster and he did one thing that a coach should never do.  He showed favoritism and he brought in players that if he wasn’t the coach, these players would have never worn a Ranger Jersey.

The outcome, Petr Prucha is traded and the Rangers fans again are cheated out of one of their favorite players, who has the ability ,talent  and youth , that the Rangers needed.  

 Would the Rangers have signed Naslund if Renney was not the coach? Definitely not. Naslund was on the downward spiral for years prior and with the year that had much more qualified players on the free agency list, Renney gets Sather to sign Naslund.   Hossa , Bertuzzi,  Owen Nolan, Teemu Selanne, Ladislav Nagy,  Fedotenko,  Cory Stillman, Ruutu and Jan Hlavac to name a bunch where all free agents and would have been better picks then Naslund.  Renney gets fired and Naslund retires one year short of the end of his two year contract.  If that alone is not fishy, then something wrong with you! Especially when, Naslund came in first in goals last year.

Some will say well he did a very good job in the beginning. He did, but he also had help from the true leaders on that team. Jagr and Shanahan, both who used to stay after practice to help the younger guys. Does Renney try to keep Shanny, no he lets him go so he can sign Naslund, who turned out to be less of a leader then the coach.

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