I would like to do something unprecedented on this blog and set a precedent. This precedent is for the contributors of this blog to respond to blog posts posted by others. Just below this post is an article titled "The Good Word." It was posted by someone that I only know as Metstradamus. This person does not sign his name at the end of his posts like he was told to do so when he was first invited to this blog. So I cannot put a name on the person I am responding to but I am responding to his post nonetheless.
The reason I have chosen to respond through a post and not a comment is because I have the ability to do so and I also did not believe that a comment would get the same amount of views as an actual post.
I will now put my obsession of starting blog posts by saying absolutely nothing on hold, and finally respond to the below article.
If you want to propse trading Brandon Dubinsky for Ilya Kovalchuck, you need to have much stronger reason.
If there is one distinct characterstic of Ranger fans, it would be pateince. Ranger fans have always had patience. They have waited from 1940 until 1994 to win a Stanley Cup and since then it has now been 8+ years since the 94 cup. Of course no sports fan necessarily wants to have patience but some sports fans have just adapted it.
Now the reason I bring this up is although any Ranger fan truly believe their team has the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup this year, or next year if they were to really really go deep inside themselves and express their true feelings (and many fans never will), I think they can admit the Rangers will not win a Stanley Cup this year.
And also, with all the players the Rangers lost in Shannahan, Jagr, Straka, Nylander and on and on and on, the Rangers I think are doing much better than everyone expected. We all knew the Rangers had great young talent but I don't think anyone thought they would get off to the start they did.
Now Mestradamus claims the Rangers do not have a dynamic player and that is 99.9% true. However, will bringing Ilya Kovalchuck really all of a sudden make us think the Rangers will win the Stanley Cup this year? The answer I still believe is no. Kovalchuck is still only 25 and he is no Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin. He would provide a great boost but the bottom line is, Ranger fans would have to wait for a Stanley Cup anyway.
The Rangers do have great experienced players in Gomez and Drury and I don't think they have necessarily performed to the high standards us Ranger fans hoped they would. However, this is the .1% reason that I do not agree with the "no dynamic player" assertion. If they really stepped it up to the high level they have shown in the past then the Rangers all of a sudden have 2 dynamic players.
Now here's the main thing. As I said, if Kovalchuck were to become a Ranger this year, the Rangers still probably will not win a Stanley Cup this year. Would they win next year? Ehh. Maybe. The next year? Possibly. You never know with hockey.
But here is my point. Kovalchuck is 25. Dubinsky is 22. They are both really young. I don't necessarily think the 3 years is a tremendous difference. But even Mestradamus said and I quote "He'd be a tough player to give up, as he is probably a future captain of this team (he even looks like a young Rod Gilbert)."
So for the purposes of this blog, let's say the Rangers even with Kovalchuck would still have to wait 3 years to win a Stanley Cup. In 3 years, Dubinsky will be 25, and the current Rangers captain Chris Drury will be 35.
If Brandon Dubinsky looks like a young Rod Gilbert already, then let's say that Dubinsky will end up being that dynamic captain-esque player in 3 years anyway! So the point is, you will end up having a dynamic Brandon Dubinsky at age 25 in stead of Kovalchuck at age 28. Dubinsky at age 25 will be just as good and the Rangers will not gain any ground by getting Kovalchuck (at least not for the reasons asserted by Mestradamus)....
Mark Elliot Wishnia <---------------------------CLICK!
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