from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
These words, uttered in the aftermath of the 2001 trade that brought Eric Lindros to New York, were the ones Glen Sather lived by throughout a pro hockey lifetime that began when the NHL was still a mom-and-pop Original Six operation:
“It’s better to be a lion for one day than it is to be a mouse for life,” Sather said then, addressing the high-risk nature of the trade for No. 88, and he might just as well have said the very same thing when he traded for Pavel Bure or Rick Nash or Martin St. Louis or Keith Yandle, or when he signed Bobby Holik, Wade Redden or Brad Richards, or when he hired then fired coach John Tortorella.
You know for whom playing it safe really equated to death? Sather, that’s who. Sather, who went for it when the going was good, as it most certainly has been for the last four seasons over which the Rangers have been the NHL’s third-best team — advancing to the conference finals three times, and the Cup final once while finishing with the East’s best record twice and capturing one Presidents’ Trophy.
It’s been kind of the Silver Age of Rangers’ hockey, only without the precious silver chalice.
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.