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Chris Drury: New Leader of the Red, White and Blue?
by Patrick Hoffman on 09/21/08 at 06:00 PM ET
Comments (3)
The Jaromir Jagr era is over on Broadway which leaves a very valuable and respected position open in the organization: the team captaincy.
For the past three seasons, Jagr did everything he could to make the Blueshirts a better hockey team better. He scored a lot of points (290), played well in the Stanley Cup playoffs (27 points in 23 games), and he said all the right things about the team to reporters whether they won or lost. However, the time has come for a new player to step up and lead this team to hockey’s promised land and that guy should be Chris Drury.
While Drury may be a quiet guy in the locker room, he is anything but quiet on the ice. He scores big goals, wins key face-offs, sacrifices his body to block shots, plays on the power play, kills penalties, and plays hard at both ends of the ice. These are the kind of qualities that coaches dream about their players having.
Drury is also a player who knows what it takes to win at the highest level. He won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001 and in 1989, he pitched the biggest game in the Little League World Series, leading his team (Trumbull, Connecticut) to victory and being named the MVP of the tournament.
He may have had a tough playoff in his first year with the Rangers (6 points in 10 games), but Drury is known for being a go-to-guy come April. In his career, he has scored 16 playoff game-winners and posted 87 points in 124 games. Assuming that the Rangers make the playoffs in 2008-09 (and I could definitely be getting ahead of myself with that statement), look for Drury to shine and be the playoff performer that he was with the Avs’ and Buffalo Sabres.
I would also imagine that when Rangers’ general manager Glen Sather signed the Trumbull, CT native in July of 2007, both he and head coach Tom Renney envisioned Drury being the team’s next captain. For Renney, this decision should be an absolute no-brainer.
There will be those of you that think Scott Gomez may be the better candidate as he is more outspoken about the team. While I agree that Gomez would make a fine captain, I believe that he is better suited to be an assistant captain with the club.
It’s time to hand over the reigns to Drury, a player who knows what it takes to win the Stanley Cup and someone who will play hard and lead his team every single night if given the chance to.
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Tags: Chris+Drury, Glen+Sather, Scott+Gomez, Tom+Renney,
Comments
Drury is also a player who knows what it takes to win at the highest level. He won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001 and in 1989, he pitched the biggest game in the Little League World Series, leading his team (Trumbull, Connecticut) to victory and being named the MVP of the tournament.
Don’t forget winning the 1995 NCAA National Championship with Boston University!
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The Goal Line Report will focus on all things Eastern Conference. Do I have a bias towards the Eastern Conference just because I am a New Yorker? No, but it certainly does make things easier! I’ll make my opinions known on Eastern Conference news bits (as often as I can), big games, hot and cold players, trades (I don’t make things up) and anything and everything else related to the Eastern Conference that I think is important for hockey fans to know. I will, in every sense of the word, be the beast of the East while also making sure to drop my thoughts on other hockey news items.
I, Patrick Hoffman, have covered the NHL since 2003 and have worked for a variety of hockey media sources including: Stan Fischler, Spector’s Hockey, TheHockeyNews.com, HockeyBuzz.com, McKeen’s Hockey, Blueshirt Bulletin, XM Home Ice Channel Hockey Blog, HockeyPrimeTime.com, FantasyHockey.com. NY SportsDay, and HokejaVestnesis.com.
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Drury has the experience of being a captain, so I think that gives him the edge. And unlike last year, he’s not the new guy in the room--there’s been so much turnover in this roster that he’s now practically an “established” Ranger after only 1 year. Since Renney has said he wants to name a captain, and not have 3 alternates like the year after the lockout, I think it’ll be Drury.
He’s a good player, that’s for sure, I just wish from an entertainment standpoint that he wasn’t such a boring interview. I can never tell if he actually says something relevant to the game because I usually fall asleep as soon as he starts talking.
That has nothing to do with being a good captain or player, of course, but since the captain is usually the spokesperson for the team...well, that would be just another reason to miss Jagr.
Posted by K24 from NYC on 09/21/08 at 06:45 PM ET