Why the Rangers Aren’t Begging Their Fans to Return

Rangers fans during the playoffs last season.

The NHL published a full-page apology to fans in newspapers today, thanking them for their patience and saying that the league is "committed to earning back your trust and support the same way it's earned on the ice: with hard work and unwavering dedication." It's a relatively empty gesture, as far as these things go, but it's telling that the league is still in apology mode with opening night just two days away. It knows there are certain types of fans it's in danger of losing, and the league desperately doesn't want to be seen as anti-fan after a lockout in which the league's supporters were the undisputed losers.

Contrast that with the tone and content of an e-mail Rangers owner Jim Dolan sent to a fan this week (the validity of which, by the way, was confirmed by a team spokesperson to Newsday). Here, first, is the e-mail the fan, Joseph Hellman, wrote to Dolan:

The line about accepting that attending games is a luxury is profoundly sad, but we'll let that go for now. Here's Dolan's response:

Believe as much as you'd like about that e-mail, like whether the team couldn't possibly have done more because it's so focused on bringing its fans a championship. (What exactly that means, we're not sure.) It sort of doesn't matter, though, because there's something else to be learned here. The Rangers don't really feel the need to make any big gestures to win back their diehard fans right now because they frankly don't have to. Would it be great if they slashed ticket prices? Of course. But go try to buy a ticket to opening night on the secondary market, and you'll see there's plenty of demand, even with tickets at full price. Dolan's e-mail doesn't beg the fan to stick with the Rangers; it doesn't have to.

If anything, Dolan is putting himself in the same boat as the fan, and he's not bullshitting when he says no one wanted to play hockey more than the Rangers. Not only does the team have the potential to be among the league's best, but Dolan knows that it's profitable, too. That isn't true across the NHL, and in many cities, the sport is still in its infancy, relatively speaking. (There are no third-generation Blue Jackets fans.) The league, representing both its strong franchises and its struggling ones, needs to make a show of being sorry, and must make an effort to, at the very least, maintain its existing fan base. That's not as big a priority for the Rangers, who can still count on their core supporters to care even after a work stoppage. (We are sort of curious to see what these "fan engagement tactics" are, though.)

This isn't to say the Rangers are the talk of the town right now; there's plenty of room to grow its fan base by winning over new fans, or further engaging the casual ones. But while the league has to consider fans across the continent, the Rangers know their situation was pretty desirable before the lockout and remains pretty desirable now. The NHL needs to do damage control, but the Rangers can go about their business, more or less as usual.

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Meet Your New Rangers

Rick Nash, Aaron Asham, Jeff Halpern, Taylor Pyatt. You'll have to imagine what they look like in Rangers jerseys until this weekend.

Usually, hockey fans get a handful of preseason games to get to know the players the team acquired in the offseason. But this year, of course, the league is jumping right into the season after an extended lockout and a brief training camp. Here, now, a look at the newest Rangers, in advance of Saturday's Opening Night.

Rick Nash
Perhaps you've heard of him? Glen Sather wisely passed on him at the trade deadline last season, and waited until Columbus dropped its asking price to something reasonable. But now Nash, 28, is being heralded as the final piece of the Rangers' puzzle, and the hype is not without good reason: He's an elite scorer, joining a team that struggled to find offense at times last season. More exciting still: Nash is likely to skate on line with Brad Richards, a better centerman than he'd been playing with in Columbus. Without specifically naming Nash, John Tortorella said at the end of last season that the team wouldn't rule out adding some scoring punch, even if it came from a player who didn't exactly fit the forechecking-forward mold the coach prefers. But Nash has a big body and a sick reach. He should fit in just fine.

Arron Asham
Brandon Prust was a fan favorite in New York and was the definition of the modern enforcer: He could fight, for sure, but he contributed in other ways, like killing penalties. But Prust is in Montreal now after signing a four-year, $10 million free agent contract, and the 34-year-old Asham was brought in to provide some fourth-line grit. Asham — who doesn't kill penalties, in case you were wondering — was signed on the same day as Michael Haley, who brings little more than the ability to drop the gloves, and will ideally spend a lot of time in the minors. (For that reason, we're not including him here. We're also leaving out Matt Gilroy, a depth defenseman who Rangers fans should already be familiar with.) Asham won't be in the lineup on Opening Night Saturday, as he's still suspended for this fucked up cross-check (and punch) of Brayden Schenn during last year's playoffs:

Jeff Halpern
The 36-year-old center, who scored four goals and twelve assists for Washington last year and was a healthy scratch for all but two of Washington's playoff games, signed a cheap one-year deal with the Rangers in July, and could be of use on a penalty kill that lost Prust and Ruslan Fedotenko to free agency. He also won 58.3 percent of his 614 draws draws last year, good for fifth in the NHL. (Perhaps he can teach Derek Stepan some things.) Fun fact about Halpern: Both of his parents are from Brownsville in Brooklyn.

Taylor Pyatt
Pyatt's another big body — six foot four, 228 pounds — and made some noise in the playoffs last year, scoring four goals during Phoenix's run to the Western Conference Finals. As Pat Leonard noted on his Daily News blog over the summer, the twenty shots he blocked in the postseason were also surely attractive to Tortorella. That said, Pyatt, 31, scored just nine goals in 73 regular-season games last season — exactly half as many as he'd tallied the previous year — and saw his ice time cut from 2010–11, as well.

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Nunez, Lillibridge ignite Yankees rally off Rangers closer Nathan in 5-4 comeback win

YANKEES 5, RANGERS 4

ARLINGTON — Brent Lillibridge was headed for goat-ville Tuesday night after his sixth-inning fielding error opened the door for a big inning by the Rangers.

Instead, he found himself playing the role of hero for the first time since joining the Yankees — and took his manager off the hook following a questionable pitching change.

Lillibridge’s RBI single in the ninth inning lifted the Yankees to a 5-4 win over the Rangers in front of a stunned crowd of 42,739 at Rangers Ballpark.

“You come in here as a new guy, you want to just make the plays, do your job, not make too many waves and get yourself comfortable,” Lillibridge said. “I was able to make up for (the error) in a big win. I was just excited to help.”

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Eduardo Nunez had tied the game moments earlier with a triple that scored Vernon Wells, handing Joe Nathan, who closed the All-Star Game after Mariano Rivera pitched the eighth inning, his second blown save in 33 opportunities this season. The ninth-inning heroics saved Joe Girardi from being a goat himself for his decision to pull Phil Hughes with two outs in the sixth despite a low pitch count and what had been a strong performance by the righthander.

“I thought Phil battled,” Girardi said. “I didn’t think he had his best stuff tonight but I thought he found a way to keep us in the game.”

Boone Logan made the decision look foolish, serving up a go-ahead, two-run home run by Mitch Moreland that had the Yankees headed straight for their fourth loss in five games since the All-Star break before the unlikely combo of Nunez and Lillibridge rescued them.

“It could have been a bad night for us, but to get this win was big,” said Hughes, who allowed three unearned runs in 5.2 innings. “Hopefully it gives us some momentum going forward.”

The Yankee bats showed some early signs of life, snapping a 22-inning streak without an extra-base hit in the third as Melky Mesa and Austin Romine each doubled against starter Alexi Ogando for a 1-0 lead. Ichiro Suzuki added an RBI infield hit in the inning. Hughes worked out of jams in the first and third, stranding two runners on base in each inning. His lone strikeout of the game came in the third against Nelson Cruz with two men on base, a huge turning point that helped him escape the inning.

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