New Look New York Rangers: Let's Begin Again

You know, at least Glen Sather is humble enough to admit he was wrong.  The moves on this trade deadline day almost scream apology.  Nik Antropov, Derek Morris, and Sean Avery are all wearing a new sweater, while Nigel Dawes, Petr Prucha, and Dimitri Kalinin are all looking to start over in a new system.

For Avery, it is an old look.  He's back in a city that loves him, a jersey he looked good in, and a building he all but owned for almost two years.  The Rangers were always better with him than without him, but Sean is Sean.  

He knows how to rub his teammates the wrong way.  It's unfortunate that he ended up coming back to the Rangers the way he did.  However, this writer, for one, is glad he's back.

Without sounding redundant, Avery infuses a major edge into a lineup that my colleagues at ESPN.com have called vanilla.  Not only that, the Rangers traded three players that add up to the same weight of the player they got. Prucha, Kalinin, and the diminutive Dawes are all wearing a dog on the front of their new jersey, while Derrick "D-Mo" Morris joins the Rangers.

Morris also adds an edge to the Rangers blue line.  Hopefully, he'll add a spark to a defense corps that has had a tendency to be as soft as butter left on a park bench in a park in Mexico City.  

And then there is Nik Antropov.  He scores 20 goals.  But he's HUGE.  He's so the exact opposite of all the other Rangers forwards. I'm certain that it will look like an ice bound adaptation of Gulliver's Travels.  

In 48 hours, the Rangers have gone from a pint of vanilla ice cream, to something more in the cinnamon family.  The reacquisition of Avery, plus the trades for Antropov and Morris have reinvented these Rangers for the second time in under a year.  

Avery should fit in well with Tortorella's system.  Avery, if anything, plays with passion and edge every night.  Crash the net, coach?  Sure!

Antropov loves hanging around the net, plus he's very difficult to knock off the puck. He's also pretty good at the deflection goal.

Morris is no pussycat.  He's a brute.  And he may just be the brute the Rangers' defensemen may need.  Think of the pairing of Morris and Redden.  I offer a history lesson.  Half of Brian Leetch's success was due to a guy named Jeff Beukaboom clearing bodies up and down the ice.  That may be just what Redden needs.

This really is Sather's last stand.  If his reinvention of the current makeover does not work out, you better believe that Sather will be struggling to find the number for New York State unemployment insurance.

Of course, that is a moot point.

Just remember: friends don't let friends get a mullet.  That's why we know Barry Melrose really has no friends.