Grab your dark roast and settle in!!

CHECKIN'OUT

Dave Checketts reign as CEO and president at Madison Square Garden has ended, and from a hockey standpoint, we can say only one thing.

Amen.

All throughout Checketts' tenure at the Garden, the Rangers have been the Knicks stepchild, even though the Rangers brought home the Stanley Cup in 1994 while the Knicks have been eternal bridesmaids. The Rangers missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year is as much of a reflection on the management as it is the personnel.

Checketts came in as a basketball man and never deviated from that. He stood on the shoulders of former Garden president Bob Gutkowski and reaped the benefits of a good Ranger foundation already in place. Checketts then stood by and watched as the Rangers slowly deteriorated into the mess they are now.

Perhaps the biggest gaff of the Checketts era came when he allowed Mark Messier to leave New York. Although Messier is partly to blame for his departure, it was Checketts who was instrumental in the split because he refused to pay Messier the million per year he wanted. Instead, Checketts gave Patrick Ewing million over four years to stay in New York.

Hindsight is 20/20 and the fact that Ewing could neither stay healthy nor deliver a championship is proof that Checketts invested in the wrong man. But even without hindsight, you can still see that Checketts and the Garden goofed.

Messier was far and away the heart and soul of the Rangers. He came to New York to be a leader. He did not shun the role - he embraced and accepted the good and the bad. He took control of a leader-less locker room and willed his teammates to be better. In the Cup run of 1994, he not only made the Namath-like prediction before Game 6 vs. the Devils, he delivered a hat trick. He scored the winning goal in Game 7 of the finals, bringing the Stanley Cup to Broadway.

Ewing, on the other hand, has been quite the opposite. He was the reluctant leader and certainly did not lead in the locker room. He was terrible with the media and never wanted to accept blame. He rarely took his team by the throat and demanded they win. He consistently failed in the clutch, best typified by his missed fingertip roll against the Pacers in 1995. His guarantees became a back page joke.

Checketts' failure to sign Messier also destroyed the purpose of bringing Wayne Gretzky to New York. What was supposed to be a reunion of these great players to take a run at the Stanley Cup turned out to be a one year tease - and signified the beginning of the end. Gretzky did not perform as well without Messier and finished his career without even a sniff of the Stanley Cup.

Former Ranger GM Neil Smith has to bear the brunt of the blame for the current state of the Rangers. It was his free agent signings that have put the Rangers in their current state. Maybe Checketts put too much faith in Smith - or is that a smokescreen for Checketts' lack of involvement with the Rangers? Checketts didn't even step into the Smith/John Muckler pissing match until it was way too late.

Sure, Cablevision put up million for the Ranger payroll, but this has become more asset management rather than hockey development. Deep pockets and shoddy management don't mix. The Dolan's doling of million was more like an investor holding his shares of tech stocks in a bear market or a gambler putting up his deed as collateral: More interest in recouping the lost cash than finding out how they got in this mess in the first place.

Let's hope whomever takes over for Checketts has some passion for hockey.

RANGER NOTES

Ranger fans will be collectively holding their breaths as defenseman Tomas Kloucek undergoes major knee surgery this week. Kloucek tore his ACL and sprained his MCL in an April 1st game against the Atlanta Thrashers. Doctors could not operate until the MCL sprain had healed. Kloucek is one of the few young players the Rangers have who could have an impact. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery................Theo Fleury has completed his stay in a rehab center and will spend most of the summer in the Southwest for counseling. As long as Fleury follows the steps of the program, he will continue to get paid and receive benefits. Here's hoping for another speedy recovery...........Murray Murdoch, the former New York Rangers forward who coached Yale for 27 seasons, died Thursday in South Carolina. He was 96. Murdoch, who won the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1974 for contributions to American hockey, had 84 goals and 192 points in 508 games for the Rangers from 1926-37.

STANLEY CUP NOTES

Men without hats
Surprisingly, there have been no hat tricks in the playoffs this year. Even with the stifling defenses and traps employed in the playoffs, plus better penalty killing, we managed to see five hat tricks last season. The NHL record is 12 hat tricks, set in 1988. Of the 12 tricks, Jari Kurri had four!!!
Roy is money
Love him or hate him, Av goalie Patrick Roy is the best money goalie ever in the playoffs. He has 132 wins, 17 shutouts and a 36-14 record in overtime. Incredible.
More eyes on the Cup
ABC's playoff ratings are up 14% from last year, which is great news for the NHL. After disappointing regular season numbers, the playoffs have been a boon for ratings, thanks mostly to the bevy of OT games, better promotion and the return of Mario Lemieux. ESPN has seen a 20% increase in viewership during the conference finals, with Game 3 of the Blues/Avs series drawing over two million viewers, the most for any hockey telecast this season.
Good things come in 3's
The Avalanche lit up Roman Turek for three goals in 1:18 during Game 4 of the conference finals......and that's not even the Avs best effort this season. They smoked Vancouver for three quickies in :38 during Game 4 of the quarterfinals. The 1979 Toronto Maple Leafs hold the record, in which they recorded three goals in :23.
Road rules
Playing well on the road is key to winning the Stanley Cup - and teams are taking heed. In the first round, road teams won 46% of the games. In the second round, that number jumped to 60% and sits at a shade under 50% right now. The Devils were 10-2 last year en route to winning the Cup and are 6-2 so far this year. They have outscored their opponents 27-11 on the road. Can you say dominating?
Odd man in
The Devils have had a 20-5 edge in odd man rushes against Pittsburgh, including a 12-1 edge in Game 3.
Bonus babies
The winners of the Stanley Cup will make roughly ,000 in bonus money drawn from a 12 million dollar pool. Each losing player in the Cup finals will get roughly ,000. Players from teams eliminated in the first round will get about ,000 each. That should cover a few crowns and bridge work.
Wiener-Peca
While his team battled and lost the drive for the Stanley Cup, Michael Peca was in Germany at the World Championships. After sitting out the whole season in a contract dispute with the Buffalo Sabres, Peca used the tournament to prove he is worth the money. "I'm pretty sure I'll be playing in the NHL next year," said Peca. "I know there are a lot of eyes out there that are interested."

MEDIA NOTES

Had to chuckle at a comment by ESPN's Steve Levy. After Colorado's Greg DeVries missed a golden opportunity to score in the first period of Game 4, Levy said the Blues were getting all the breaks. DeVries hasn't scored a goal in 58 playoff games, so him missing the net is not a surprise..........Speaking of Levy, he made a brilliant call on the OT winner for the Avs in Game 4. He is getting better and better.........ESPN's Barry Melrose laying it on the line - "A good goalie is a goalie that stops the puck. Right now, Roman Turek is not a good goalie. Brent Johnson should be the Blues goalie.".........For the record, Sergei Brylin is not washing his child in the real Stanley Cup. It's a prop. There were no reported doody stains in the Cup............Finally, can we get a new Powerade commercial during the games? I mean if I have to hear that doofus scream "Go Penguins" one more time, I'm gonna yak.

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