When the NHL returned in 2005 following a season-long lockout, most expected the New York Rangers to be a last-place team with a declining superstar. The Rangers, though, created a different identity and returned to success behind a revitalized Jaromir Jagr. As the 2007-08 season has progressed, however, it has become clear that that identity, the “Jagr” era, isn’t destined to last very long. Fortunately for the Rangers, it seems that a new identity is well on its way to being forged. A new era is on the way for the New York Rangers.

Earlier in the season, any flashes of greatness from this squad usually involved Jagr or Brendan Shanahan, but the team has failed to sustain any consistency from any of their minor runs this year. It’s too soon to tell if this current streak of strong play will last, but it’s a good sign that it isn’t Jagr or Shanahan leading the way, but rather the new blood. This past weekend, the Rangers played six straight periods of excellent hockey, led not by Jagr, but by Chris Drury, Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan. This weekend’s 5-1 and 3-1 victories over the Buffalo Sabres and the San Jose Sharks, respectively, were the work of the future of the Broadway Blueshirts.

The end of the 2003-04 season saw a momentous change occur for the Rangers organization, when general manager Glen Sather cleaned house and traded Brian Leetch to the Toronto Maple Leafs. As unpopular as the move may have been, it accomplished something that the team was sorely in need of: a cutting of all ties not only with nearly a decade’s worth of losing, but a cutting of ties with the 1994 Stanley Cup championship team, a success that the organization had been clinging to for dear life ever since. After the lockout, Sather and head coach Tom Renney, along with Jagr, managed to carve out a new niche for the team. Surrounding Jagr with a bunch of his Czech countrymen, a bunch of hard-working young players and a surprising young Swedish goalie, the all-new Rangers formed an all-new identity. The next year, with a few tweaks and the valuable addition of Brendan Shanahan, the “Jagr” era Rangers achieved the franchise’s first playoff success in ten years.

As pleasant as that was, though, Sather realized two things last summer. For one, he correctly guessed that after Jagr’s numbers slid a year ago, it was likely that the 36-year-old’s impact would lessen even more this season, signaling that the “Jagr” era wasn’t destined to last very long. By signing free agents Drury and Scott Gomez and not resigning Michael Nylander, Sather also realized that he had a chance to essentially reshape the team’s identity and future in one fell swoop.

Now, it hasn’t been uncommon to see detractors of the Gomez and Drury signings, which isn’t surprising, with the team fighting just to remain in playoff contention for much of the season. At this point, though, it’s no longer an issue. The Rangers are committed to Gomez and Drury, for seven and five years, respectively, whether anyone likes it or not, so it would behoove the team to do what’s necessary to win with them.

After some early struggles, both Drury and Gomez have found their games, which is good. What’s more encouraging, though, is that they’ve hit their stride just as the building blocks of the team’s future have hit their collective strides as well. Sather banked on the hope that the organization would continue to benefit this season from what has become one of the deepest and best-prepared prospect pools in the league, after too many years of negligence. Evidently he was right.

Dubinsky, Callahan and Nigel Dawes seem to have finally secured spots in the lineup, no longer seeing sparse fourth line minutes and the situation on defense is similarly positive. Marc Staal has been consistently solid on the blueline all season long in his first NHL campaign, while Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin, a pair of solid young defenseman that both received contract extensions this weekend, continue to mature. Then there’s Blair Betts, who has become the dependable, defensive-minded center that is synonymous with most successful teams, even if he isn’t much of a provider offensively. Oh yeah, there’s also that Henrik Lundqvist guy. He’s pretty good and he’s going to be here for a while, too.

The Rangers of today and the Rangers of two, three, four years from now will obviously have their differences. There are still the likes of Alexei Cherepanov, Bobby Sanguinetti, Artem Anisimov, Mike Sauer and a bunch of others to look forward too, after all. And certainly, there’s no guarantee that all of the current young Blueshirts will still be here then. Most of them will be, though, so Ranger fans better get used to them and hope that the way they played together this weekend is a preview, rather than an anomaly.