News Article: Ron Mclean Rant about Richards

3rd Guy High

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Feb 17, 2010
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MAYBE if someone on one of the top 3 lines gets injured he goes in as a winger. Otherwise he will not play again this year.
 

Nikita4

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Aug 29, 2005
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Not sure if its been discussed...but when Torts said something along the lines of this team needs help off the ice, was he hinting/eluding at Richards?

From what i've read, Richards is a very strong locker room guy and big leader on the team, hence the A.
 

cd211

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Feb 6, 2010
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booo hooo.. guy makes 12m a yr and has made a boat load of money in his career.. players who make the big bucks better be able to take that tough criticism when they aren't performing well..

pretty simple, guy hasn't been effective at all.. and theres no excuses... in real life for us regular folks.. if we dont perform at work, we get fired.. sorry but cry me a river..
 

slipknottin

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F this guy, the rangers deserved better. Not Richards. He got his huge contract and an expectation to be a great player. He completely sucks. Torts had no choice but to tell him to go away
 

beastly115

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What a dork. Richards was benched because he wasn't playing bad. It happens. Deal with it. What a whiny article.
 

Oak

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I wonder if him getting the ridiculous contract had anything to do with Tortorella pressuring Sather that it is a good idea?

Maybe if we boot Richards, Tortorella will follow? :D
 

JayQueensNY88*

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I have no care or concern or sympathy for any sports players. There is no way these guys shoud make the money they do to PLAY sports. Meanwhile Drs and Lawyers and Construction workers don't make what they fully deserve.

I don't wish anything bad on them but just don't care.
 

Jabroni

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Jun 1, 2008
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Brad Richards doesn't deserve anything for his previous accomplishments. Idealistically, no player in any sport deserves any time to play, that has to be earned. This is especially true with Tortorella. He was giving Richards chances to show that he deserves more ice time. He failed, and Tortorella benched him.
 

eco's bones

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Comparatively speaking to the great majority of people major sports professional athletes live glamourous lives and are very well remunerated for it. It helps them to salt away some of their pay for a rainy day as their occupations tend to have a shorter shelf life. OTOH there's an advantage to the kind of contacts they can make. A more top end athlete like Richards who has had made millions--well, there's not much of an excuse for him not to be well set up for the rest of his life. So, though it may be disturbing how quickly his game has gone downhill--truthfully I don't see any need to feel sorry for him at least not without first considering the 99% of the rest of the country who have much less than he has. He's a lucky guy--got to extend his childhood by playing a game that he loves and got tons of money and so many other perks that go with that.
 

Ice Hockey

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What a waste of bandwidth on the intertronz that article was. All the author did was list Richie's past accomplishments and whine. Messier had an illustrious career & lots of accomplishments... are we gonna suit him up for next season? LOLOLOL.

Short of, and nothing less than, an absolute miracle happening between now and training camp, Richards is finished as an NHL player.
 

nyrpassion

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Mar 10, 2008
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What a waste of bandwidth on the intertronz that article was. All the author did was list Richie's past accomplishments and whine. Messier had an illustrious career & lots of accomplishments... are we gonna suit him up for next season? LOLOLOL.

Short of, and nothing less than, an absolute miracle happening between now and training camp, Richards is finished as an NHL player.

Strongly disagree. Richie will be on a NHL team next year. Rangers or not. I still think he stays next year.
 

dynamoovechkin

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Apr 25, 2006
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I was a little surprised at Ron Maclean coming out and making these statements. His body of work should be considered. How ridiculous!

What concerned me most about Richie this year was his mental game- he seemed lost and disconsolate and just flabbergasted. Like he was depressed or something. Love him as a player but he just wasn't right mentally this year, and that's alarming as hell.

I noticed that Tort's benched Asham too, another player I don't expect to be brought back. I think he was just trying to give some playoff experience to some younger players who have a chance to help the org in the future.

Ron Maclean- we have come o expect better of you! Typical Canadian homer bs.
Have you actually SEEN what Richie has given us this year?
 

RangerFan10

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The decision to bench him was so much more about the need for the Rangers to have a 4th line that could match the intensity the Bruins 4th line brought to that series each night than it was about Richards or Asham as players. Richards doesn't fit that role at all and let's face it, Brassard, Boyle, Stepan and generally every forward on the roster was playing better than he was. Asham scored twice, a nice surprise, but was generally a factor in the puck getting stuck in our end and just didn't have a physical or mental impact on the other team's players.

The line of Haley-Newbury-Dorsett was probably what we needed much sooner in the playoffs. Is it a line that's ideal? Certainly not. But it was the closest thing we had to what's usually necessary from a 4th line in the playoffs.
 

Chief

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Jun 19, 2003
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The decision to bench him was so much more about the need for the Rangers to have a 4th line that could match the intensity the Bruins 4th line brought to that series each night than it was about Richards or Asham as players. Richards doesn't fit that role at all and let's face it, Brassard, Boyle, Stepan and generally every forward on the roster was playing better than he was. Asham scored twice, a nice surprise, but was generally a factor in the puck getting stuck in our end and just didn't have a physical or mental impact on the other team's players.

The line of Haley-Newbury-Dorsett was probably what we needed much sooner in the playoffs. Is it a line that's ideal? Certainly not. But it was the closest thing we had to what's usually necessary from a 4th line in the playoffs.

Tortorella's double-talk is bad enough but people are actually buying what he's peddling. Just call a spade a spade: If Richards was leading the team in scoring like he did the last playoffs, nobody would be talking about the need for a 4th line to play a certain style. If Richards had even put up modest point totals, he probably would not have been on the "4th line" playing minor minutes and there wouldn't have been any reason to scratch him.
 

Brooklyn Ranger

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Guess no one noticed the latest on Richards?

The change in coaching administrations could alter the Rangers’ decision regarding Brad Richards, who still is far more likely to be an amnesty buyout later this month than a candidate for the club’s first-line center slot when camp convenes in September, but who sure has a better shot at Broadway redemption than he did before coach John Tortorella was dismissed on Wednesday.

Not only would tension abate with the hiring of a new boss who most certainly won’t be like the old boss, the next coach all but certainly will be given input into the alternate captain’s immediate future. If it is at all possible, management and ownership would rather defer the decision on a buyout for a year instead of simply sending Richards away after two seasons — and what would amount to more than $44 million of the Garden’s money — of a nine-year deal that won’t expire until after the 2020-21 season.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/rich_may_get_reprieve_ewXi4r0p7pqeHqYi3ZehIP
 

Nac Mac Feegle

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Mikos87

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I'm pretty sure it's the opposite.

There's no way Torts made the decision to bench Richards, and there's no way Torts would want his guy to be bought out.

I think the likelihood of Richards being bought out this summer is much higher, now that Torts is gone.

Or it was Richards that Torts had a feud with...
 

Nac Mac Feegle

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Or it was Richards that Torts had a feud with...

I doubt it. Look at all the chances he gave Richards during the season. Look at Torts' tirade after game 4...you could tell he was pissed that people were pointing the fingers at his boy. And even after game 5 Torts fell on his sword and blamed himself for the team not being prepared.

And let's not forget who wrote that Post article. Brooks and a few other media types are really trying hard to twist the knife to the point they're making Torts out to be a monster. All we heard from various sources before this season from Tampa and New York is how much guys love playing for Torts. All of a sudden the players all hate him and are throwing a coup? Come on!

It's starting to sound to me that a few media personnel are trying to make Tortorella unemployable.

In other words, I smell a rat.
 

eco's bones

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Sather has said in the interview with the press (which can be found on the Rangers official NHL site) which he gave after Tortorella's firing that the decision to sit out Richards was an organizational one--which leads me to believe or think anyway that Tortorella resisted the idea. In any case it seems it certainly wasn't just Tortorella deciding to sit Richards. It also leads me to think that Sather was already considering the idea of finding a new coach as it certainly is not a sign of confidence when the g.m. etc. steps in and makes lineup decisions for his coach.

In any case--the Rangers have the option of playing Richards for one more year and in the meantime hoping he does not suffer an injury that would take away the option of buying him out. Logic argues against them doing it. Getting stuck with a huge cap hit for several years just to hang on to this guy for an extra year when he's being bypassed in the pecking order by younger centers like Stepan and Brassard does not make a hell of a lot of sense. The argument that neither Stepan and Brassard are legit first line centers doesn't really hold when Richards who used to be isn't one either and very unlikely to become one again. The likelihood is more that when a player starts a decline that trend continues even if for short periods of time he seems more invigorated and productive as Richards was towards the end of the season when the Rangers were beating up on non-playoff teams.

The right decision and not really that hard of one is with all apologies the ****ing guy has to go. Shake his hand--wish him luck and sayonara--it didn't work out. If anything I think Torts was protecting him but I guess we'll see.
 

Mikos87

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I doubt it. Look at all the chances he gave Richards during the season. Look at Torts' tirade after game 4...you could tell he was pissed that people were pointing the fingers at his boy. And even after game 5 Torts fell on his sword and blamed himself for the team not being prepared.

And let's not forget who wrote that Post article. Brooks and a few other media types are really trying hard to twist the knife to the point they're making Torts out to be a monster. All we heard from various sources before this season from Tampa and New York is how much guys love playing for Torts. All of a sudden the players all hate him and are throwing a coup? Come on!

It's starting to sound to me that a few media personnel are trying to make Tortorella unemployable.

In other words, I smell a rat.

A lot can change in 9 years. I'm not opposed to a Richards buyout, and I am a big fan of Torts. But when everyone close to him, media, and former players all say the same thing... then maybe Torts lost the team due to his behavior.

Comments from Ken Daneyko after the firing revealed a lot. As did the exit interviews from Hank, Richards etc etc.

Gaborik asked for a trade cause of Torts, and as much as I appreciate what Torts has done, you can only treat people a certain way for so long before they get sick of it. Tortorella treated his players as if their feelings did not matter, and now he is without a job.

For the record, I do think Richards get bought out, just not sure if it is this off season, or the next.
 

Nac Mac Feegle

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Sather has said in the interview with the press (which can be found on the Rangers official NHL site) which he gave after Tortorella's firing that the decision to sit out Richards was an organizational one--which leads me to believe or think anyway that Tortorella resisted the idea. In any case it seems it certainly wasn't just Tortorella deciding to sit Richards. It also leads me to think that Sather was already considering the idea of finding a new coach as it certainly is not a sign of confidence when the g.m. etc. steps in and makes lineup decisions for his coach.
...

Could be. The way the Bruins played the first three games of the series you knew they were on a mission. The likelihood of the Rangers coming out on top was slim. Maybe ole Slats decided to make the decision to keep his own head out of the public noose. We all know he's pretty much hired for life....but when the public goes bonkers, especially nowadays with the huge roar we can all make through social media....sometimes people are forced to listen.

Much easier to shove the grumpy, media hatin' old coach under the bus. Force him to make a personnel decision he hates, and the casual fans will (and did) scream over, to make Torts the perfect sacrificial lamb. No one would question why or how, just get the nasty bum outta here!

This move easily buys Slats a few more years, cause, ya know, it takes a few seasons to fully implement a new system, get it working down on the far as well, bring in a new crop of prospects in a new direction, etc, etc....
 

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