When the New York Rangers lost their second round playoff series to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the eventual Eastern Conference champs, in five games, it didn’t just put an end to the team’s season. It may also have signaled the tolling of the bell for the careers of the greatest and most accomplished hockey players still skating in the NHL.

Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan, along with Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic, are just that. No other active NHLer, other than the Atlanta Thrashers’ forward Mark Recchi, has a resume that matches that of the sure-to-be hall of fame careers of Jagr, Shanahan and Sakic, whose Avalanche were eliminated in the semifinals by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round.

Jagr is second only to Sakic in points among active players and ninth all-time. He’s also second in goals among active players and 12th overall, while ranking second in assists among current players and 13th all-time. In fact, Jagr may just be the greatest European hockey player of all-time, or at the very least, the greatest European hockey player in NHL history.

No European NHLer has as many points, goals or assists as Jagr. Jagr is also one of only five players in NHL history to average at least 1.25 points per game, a short list that includes names like Wayne Gretzky and Jagr’s former Pittsburgh Penguin teammate and mentor, Mario Lemieux. Oh yeah, Jagr’s also won a couple of Stanley Cups, though he won them with Lemieux leading the way.

Shanahan’s career is no less impressive. “Shanny” won three Stanley Cups as a member of the Detroti Red Wings and is fourth-among active players in points, just behind Recchi and 24th all-time. Always more of a goalscorer than a playmaker, Shanahan is 12th in NHL history in goals and no current player has lit the lamp more than Shanahan, but he’s still the 10th highest assist-getter playing and his 690 helpers are good for 48th best on the overall list.

Whether or not Jagr and Shanahan play again in the NHL is of paramount importance to the Rangers. A team with emerging young stars like Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky and Marc Staal, as well as veterans in their prime, like Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, the Rangers struggled with finding an identity all season long, a problem which plagued them at times. Though the team’s offense was designed around Jagr and Shanahan, their decreased production this season hurt the team badly on the offensive end of the ice. In need of new face and in need of a new image, the Rangers would likely benefit if Jagr and Shanahan left, whether to retirement, to another team, or in Jagr’s case, the Russian Hockey League, where Jagr is rumored to be heading for the twilight of his career, but it’s hard to gauge the value, off the ice, of two players as esteemed as “Jags” and “Shanny.”

The NHL, like the Rangers, is in a state of transition as well. With the headlines and the box scores dominated by new names like Crosby, Ovechkin and Iginla, the torch has been passed to a new generation of players. Jagr and Shanahan, as well as Sakic, represent the very best of the last generation, much of which has already left the game only. Aside from the two Rangers and Sakic, only a few others, names like Mats Sundin, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick and Sergei Fedorov remain. While some of them may be playing next season, their careers too are approaching their end.

The emergence of a new breed of superstars is, without a doubt, a great thing for the NHL. These new youngsters bring a new era of hope to a sport that badly needs a breath of fresh air and their greatness deserves to be celebrated. But in their brilliance, the league and it’s fans would be remiss not to also celebrate and appreciate the careers of players like Jagr and Shanahan, as well as their generation’s other stars, who shone brightly during one of the sport’s darkest times.

Despite a disappointing second round loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Rangers have a lot to be happy about heading into next year, especially in the eyes of two of the best players to ever don Broadway Blue, Rod Gilbert and Pat LaFontaine.

“The Rangers are definitely in an upswing,” Gilbert, the Rangers all-time leading scorer, said.

Playing all 18 of his NHL seasons for the Rangers, Gilbert recorded 406 goals and 1021 points from 1960-1978 as one of the greatest and most popular players in Ranger history, especially for being a member of the GAG, or Goal-A-Game, line with Vic Hadfield and Jean Ratelle. The Hall-of-Famer was also an eight-time NHL All-Star and was a member of Team Canada in the legendary 1972 Summit Series against the powerhouse Soviet Union team.

The Montreal native has been doing public relations work for the Rangers for many years and appears frequently at team-sponsored events. As such, he continues to follow the team closely.

According to Gilbert, the Rangers just didn’t have luck on their side when they lost in five games to Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

“It’s all about breaks,” said Gilbert, whose number, seven, was the first number ever retired by the Rangers. “The Rangers got the majority of the breaks against the Devils, but they didn’t get any against the Penguins. Some of the calls were lousy in the first game, some of the calls on Crosby. We go up 3-0 in that first game, we blow that game. You know, I think some of that is the inexperience and some of that probably won’t reoccur next year.”

LaFontaine, one of the greatest American hockey players ever, had similar sentiments about the Blueshirts’ playoff highs and lows.

“The Rangers had an amazing first round,” said LaFontaine. “They ran into a very young, inspired and talented team. A few breaks here and there, that series could have gone seven games. You got to have not only the skill the desire and the passion but you need some luck and the Penguins got those bounces.”

Drafted in 1983 by the New York Islanders, LaFontaine spent eight excellent seasons on Long Island before being traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 1991. LaFontaine had three amazing seasons in Western New York, including a 148-point effort in 1992-93, but he also spent most of three other seasons on the injured list due to a series of concussions. In 1997, he was traded to the Rangers, where he spent the final season of his career, scoring 62 points in 67 games. The season would be his last, however, as another concussion caused him to call it quits at the age of 34.

These days, LaFontaine devotes much of his time toward working with his charity, the Companions in Courage Foundation, which does what it can to improve the lives of sick children.

The Hall-of-Famer is still passionate about the game, however. LaFontaine pointed to the first game, when the Rangers blew a 3-0 lead to Pittsburgh, as the factor that led to the team’s downfall.

“You look back at that first game, it was so critical,” LaFontaine explained. “I often think, I wonder what kind of the series it might have been if they had pulled that game out.”

The strong performance of youngsters like Brandon Dubinsky, Marc Staal, Nigel Dawes and others means that the Rangers should be a strong team for a while, according to Gilbert, even if veterans like Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan don’t return next season.

“If these players feel that they don’t want to return, I’m sure [Rangers President and General Manager] Glen Sather will explore the free agent market,” said Gilbert. “There are some veterans who might be interested in coming here, especially knowing that we do have a good nucleus of young players. So that might appeal to some veterans to come this way and get the big one, win the Stanley Cup.

“We have the kid in Russia [2007 first round pick Alexei Cherepanov] that’s supposed to be phenomenal, maybe like another Ovechkin. A player like that can make a difference.”

Neither Gilbert or LaFontaine were surprised by the success of the Detroit Red Wings this season, with both players acknowledging the rising impact of European players and their style of play on the league.

“The influence of the Europeans has definitely played a big role in the way that the game is played,” said Gilbert. “A lot of the officiating and the encouragement of the non-hooking has pleased a lot of fans. I’d rather see a skilled game than a bunch of hooking and slashing. The game has taken a turn for the best.”

Standing 5′10” and weighing just 180 lbs., LaFontaine would have benefited greatly from the rule changes if he had played in the league today. Like many Ranger fans, the St. Louis native wishes he could have played longer for the Blueshirts.

“The always treated me so well here,” LaFontaine said. “I learned a lot about how to be a man from guys like Adam Graves, Mark Messier and Rod Gilbert, too,” recalled LaFontaine. “They were great examples for me.”

Last season, when the Rangers were on the verge of self-destructing, it was the February acquisition of agitator-extraordinaire Sean Avery that ignited the team on a run that secured them a playoff spot. Avery may be having a similar effect on the team this year, making it all the more important that the team locks up the unrestricted free agent-to be long before he hits the open market this summer.

For much of this season, the Rangers struggled despite the addition of big name free agents like Scott Gomez and Chris Drury in the off-season. Over the last few months, though, the team has been among the league’s elite, going 18-5-5 over their last 28 games. The team’s success can be attributed to several factors. The emergence of the team’s youth, such as Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan and Nigel Dawes, has been complimented by Drury finally settling in as a Ranger.

Equally as important, however, has been the re-emergence of Avery. Avery battled injury problems all season, missing 25 games and playing hurt in many others through the first half of the year. Since the All-Star break, however, Avery has been on fire. While Avery was a -2 with just 15 points, including four goals, in 26 games before the mid-season classic, the 27-year-old is a +10 with 11 goals and seven assists in 26 games since.

After an altercation earlier this season during a game against the Maple Leafs in Toronto, the NHL came down hard on Avery and made it clear that it would no longer tolerate his antics. The move caused Avery to rely less on his pest-like abilities and more on his hockey skills.

So far, it doesn’t seem as if the change has hampered Avery’s play as he continues to prove that he’s a better hockey player than his reputation would lead most fans to believe. Avery has managed to spotlight his quickness, excellent positioning and deadly wrist shot while curbing his dramatics. It’s even fair to say that, despite his occasional distractions, Avery has become a leader of sorts for the Rangers.

Re-signing Avery won’t be easy, though. Avery’s contract situation was messy to begin with as he and the team went through an unattractive arbitration battle last summer. The arbitrator awarded Avery a one-year deal worth $1.9 million, which Avery took in stride, looking to prove his worth this season.

Things got even uglier earlier this month when Avery and the Rangers were “far apart in each other’s view of his worth as a player.” Avery is looking for a contract of around $4 million per season while the Rangers are only interested in paying him $2.5 million for each campaign.

The Rangers’ point of view on the situation is, in many ways, understandable. For one, Avery has still never scored 25 goals in a season. Yes, he may very well have accomplished that this season if not for his injury problems, but, at the same time, his pesky and hard-nosed style of play makes it very likely that injuries may be par for the course later in his career. His well-known attitude problems are probably still in the back of Sather’s mind somewhere, even though Avery has managed to handle himself professionally of late. Worst of all, the large contracts that Sather gave to Drury, Gomez and Henrik Lundqvist have hampered his maneuverability under the salary cap.

Still, Avery has made it clear how important he is to the Rangers. While $4 million a season may be a bit much, if the Rangers can whittle him down to somewhere between $3-3.5 million per year it would be a sound investment for Sather to make.

Update, 3/29 – Yes, I still stand by this, despite Avery’s most recent off-ice debacle, with him being an alleged customer of high-priced madam Kristin Davis. Avery is denying it, but the bottom line is, Avery isn’t Eliot Spitzer, he’s a hockey player. A good one that has, for the most part, been a much bigger positive for the Rangers than a negative. Sign him, Slats. You won’t regret it…probably.

In the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, the Rangers struck it rich in the 7th round when they chose Swedish goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Now, they’re returning the favor.

Kudos to New York Daily News writer John Dellapina, who broke the story earlier today that the New York Rangers have reached an agreement with Lundqvist on a contract extension. Scheduled to be a restricted free agent after this season following his decision to sign a one-year deal last summer that allowed the team to pursue free agents Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, Lundqvist is now apparently going to be making slightly more than $6 million dollars a season for the next six years.

Kudos also needs to be given, in this instance at least, to the team’s general manager, Glen Sather. For all the talk about trade deadline rumors and what the team’s future holds next season in regards to some of the top players on the team, Sather correctly realized that the most important aspect of this team’s future is the man minding the nets.

In Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers have one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League and at only 25 years of age; Lundqvist should remain one of the NHL’s elite goalies for at least a decade. This is a goaltender that, in his first two NHL seasons, was nominated for the award given to the player best at the position he plays, the Vezina trophy. Oh yeah, there’s also that little bit about leading Sweden to an Olympic gold medal.

Lest Ranger fans forget, for all of the great contributions made by the likes of Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan and others to this team since the lockout, the biggest reason the Rangers were able to return to respectability is because they’ve had Lundqvist between the pipes.

It’s certainly fair to criticize the deals that were given to both Gomez and Drury. Even though both are playing well at the moment (better than they did at the start of the season, at least), in the salary cap era, tying up so much salary cap space to two players might hurt the team’s roster flexibility over the next few years. However, the same criticism can not be applied to the deal given to “King Henrik.”

Ranger fans shouldn’t find it too hard to remember how uncomfortable the team’s situation in goal had been for the years between the “Mike Richter era” and the “Lundqvist era.” Those last few seasons of Richter’s career, when injuries were taking their toll, were some difficult times in net for the Broadway Blueshirts. Recall names like Guy Hebert, Kirk McLean, Mike Dunham, Jason LaBarbera, or even the unfortunate case of young Dan Blackburn. Blackburn likely had the potential to be a solid NHL goalie but was thrust into the wrong situation at way too early a time and suffered an unlucky injury that ended his professional hockey career before it really had the chance to begin.

That’s not to say that all of those guys or the various other goalies that had brief stints with the Rangers in the few seasons before the lockout were bad. No, some of them performed admirably, playing behind some pretty terrible teams, while others didn’t do so great. None of them, though, were serious long-term solutions, Blackburn aside. None of them were as good as fast as Henrik Lundqvist, either.

Lundqvist has had goals against averages of 2.24 and 2.34 in his first two seasons, while winning at least 30 games in both. He’s well on his way to having similar numbers this year. Is Lundqvist perfect? No, of course not. In each of his three NHL seasons, counting this one, he has had consistency problems. That’s not enough of an issue to discount his role in this team’s future, though.

This was priority number one for Glen Sather, just as it should have been. If he makes no moves for the rest of the season, he’s still got a coup in this deal. Nothing could have been worse for this team than finding out this off-season that Lundqvist had been signed to an offer sheet by another team after what happened to the Buffalo Sabres with Thomas Vanek last summer.

At least there’s one less thing to worry about in July.

I covered an Islanders/Hurricanes game earlier this season and had a chance to speak with Matt Cullen. I wrote this piece about him back then, but since the Rangers are playing the Hurricanes tonight, I figured it would still be of interest. I’ll have more on the game itself later today.

A few months after winning the Stanley Cup as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, Matt Cullen signed a four-year contract worth $11.5 million with the New York Rangers. Despite helping the team to the second round of the playoffs last year, the Rangers traded him back to Carolina this summer after just a season. After somewhat disappointing numbers on Broadway, Cullen is playing excellent hockey during the early portion of the 2007-08 season.

After posting career-highs of 25 goals and 49 points on the Hurricanes’ cup-winning squad, Cullen scored just 16 goals in 2006-07, recording 41 points. While he spent much of the year centering Brendan Shanahan, who scored in bunches early in the season, Cullen was rarely involved in Shanahan’s goals. This year, however, Cullen is averaging almost a point per game, with 25 points through his team’s first 27 games (That’s more than anyone on the Rangers has, just in case your keeping track). With much of the team intact from the 2005-06 season, Cullen has had no trouble reacclimating himself to the ‘Canes.

“It’s been such a great start to the season because I’m familiar with the system,” said the 31-year-old Cullen. “I don’t really need to get used to a different style of play or anything like that. I feel comfortable playing on this team because I have experience with most of these guys and with the coaching staff. We have a talented team and we utilize the right system.”

For a Carolina team that missed the playoffs last season, a year after winning the Stanley Cup, the addition of Cullen has helped the ‘Canes look like one of the NHL’s elite teams this season. While Cullen has enjoyed being back with his former club, he can’t deny being taken a back when he learned of his trade back to Carolina.

“I was surprised,” Cullen said. “I didn’t really see it coming. We had a lot of success (in New York) last season, we were this close to making it to the Conference Finals.”

Dealt back to the ‘Canes on July 17th in exchange for defenseman Andrew Hutchinson, prospect forward Joe Barnes and a third-round pick in the 2008 draft, Cullen’s contract became a problem for the Blueshirts after they signed free agent centers Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to lucrative deals several weeks prior. Cullen was criticized at times for not producing enough offensively, despite not being used as the point man on the power play, a role that brought him much success during Carolina’s cup run and is producing similar results this year.

“I was a little disappointed,” said Cullen. “I thought a big part of the reason they got me was to play the point, so it was a little strange to not really get that chance. That’s a coach’s decision, though. I don’t really have a problem with it. Obviously, the way we were doing things wasn’t so bad, we were pretty successful.”

Still, despite some philosophical differences, Cullen had nothing negative to say about his time as a Ranger.

“It was an interesting experience,” recalled Cullen. “The fans are amazing, they’re so passionate and so excited by the team. Obviously it was nice to have the kind of success that we did, we only wished that we could have gone just a little further. It was really nice to play on the same side as talents like Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan. Those guys are living legends of the game. You learn a lot from playing with people like that.”

From time to time, I’ll be posting articles that I’ve written for other publications here. They aren’t blog entries, per se, but I figured they’d be interesting enough, anyway.

Last Thursday at Madison Square Garden, midway through the third period, with his team leading the rival Islanders, 3-2, Rangers winger Petr Prucha found himself in perfect position to score and give his team a much-needed insurance goal. Instead, after receiving a pass off the boards from center Chris Drury, the young Czech stumbled in the slot and shot the puck wide. Though the Rangers eventually got another goal, winning the game 4-2, the moment encapsulated the season Prucha has been having.

Two seasons ago, Prucha opened eyes as a rookie, scoring 30 goals in his initial NHL campaign. Unluckily for Prucha, his debut coincided with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Dion Phaneuf and his own teammate, Henrik Lundqvist, among others. Had he entered the league any other year, he would likely have been a front-runner for the Calder Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year.

Prucha didn’t have as stellar a year in his second season, but he certainly didn’t succumb to a sophomore slump. Despite struggling to find chemistry early in the season on a line with Brendan Shanahan and Matt Cullen, Prucha still managed to light the lamp 22 times in 2006-07.

52 goals in two NHL seasons. Not bad for a guy picked in the eighth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. Prucha quickly became a fan favorite at the Garden, drawing chants of “Proo, Proo” whenever he did something noteworthy on the ice, a frequent occurrence. His scoring contributions aside, Prucha always displayed a willingness to battle for the puck against players much larger than his 6-foot, 175-pound frame.

Much has been made this season about the Rangers’ team-wide problems scoring. Like most of his teammates, Prucha has been unable to elude the criticism. Through 25 games, Prucha had scored just two goals and notched five assists, putting him on pace to score only seven times for 23 total points through 2007-08. That’s about half of his average of 43.5 points per season. Suffice it to say, there are a lot less “Proo, Proo” chants at the World’s Most Famous Arena this year.

It’s hard to pinpoint Prucha’s lack of production offensively to one particular factor. Away from the puck, the feisty, baby-faced 25 year old has been as effective as always, never failing to hurl his body after a loose puck into the corner, knowing full well a thundering hit is likely to follow. However, when he gets the puck, he simply hasn’t been able to create offensively, whether getting the puck on net himself, or setting up his teammates.

The biggest reason for Prucha’s disappearance from the score sheet might be his lack of power play time. Thanks to almost immediate chemistry between Prucha and his elder countryman Jaromir Jagr, 16 of his 30 first-year goals came with the man advantage. With the arrival of Shanahan last season, Prucha wasn’t out on the power play as much, but he still recorded eight goals with the opposition down a player. This year, though, “Prooch,” as his teammates call him, has been a rare guest star for a Ranger power play that has, coincidentally or not, been mediocre throughout the first quarter of the season.

Prucha has also seen little stability in terms of linemates. He’s spent time with the likes of Drury, Blair Betts, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes and others, with a different combination every few nights. Furthermore, players like Callahan and Dawes, while certainly unique individuals in their own right, play a similar style to Prucha, perhaps limiting what a line featuring any two of the three can do.

At various points last season, when fans thought Prucha was struggling (struggles they’d certainly take over his current performance), there were rumors abound that the Chicago Blackhawks, among other teams, were interested in acquiring him. While some fans dismissed the idea of trading such a popular and exciting young player, other fans and analysts alike suggested that Prucha was not the player his statistics indicated. They claimed that the Rangers would be smart to, as they say in the stock market, “sell high,” with Prucha benefiting from playing with a talent like Jagr and his value as an asset as high as it ever would be.

So far this season, Prucha still elicits warm reactions from Ranger fans, even though his name hasn’t been heard quite as often from the arena announcer. Thanks to an injury to Avery, Prucha should start to see more time on the power play, too. However, if Prucha fails to revert to form as the season progresses, the Rangers might wish they had made a sound investment and traded Prucha while he was still a big commodity on the market.