Four Worst Injuries in Rangers History

As we await the status of both Adam Fox and K'Andre Miller, I thought now would be a good time to write about what I believe are the four worst injuries in Rangers history.

1. Jean Ratelle - 1972: Throughout most of the 1950s and '60s, the New York Rangers were not a particularly good team. In fact, it wasn't until the 1967-68 season that the roster Emile Francis assembled began to coalesce into a playoff contender. Beginning in the 1970-71 season, the Blueshirts made it to the semifinals four consecutive years and the Cup finals once. That one finals appearance was in 1972.

That season, the Rangers ran a close second to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference. Their GAG line consisted of Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield. Hadfield set the franchise record with 50 goals that season; a record that stood until Adam Graves scored 52 in 1994.

But it was Ratelle who was the team's star. He was on pace to finish the season with 125 points when he took a slap shot to the ankle by Dale Rolfe. X-rays revealed a fracture. Ratelle would miss the final 15 games of the regular season and the first two rounds of the postseason. 

Against Boston, Ratelle gave it his best, but was nowhere near a hundred percent. He registered one assist in the six-game series, while Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr and Ken Hodge had their way with New York. The sight of Espo hoisting the Cup at Madison Square Garden was one that would haunt Rangers fans for years.

2. Ulf Nilsson - 1979: After a three-year rebuild by John Ferguson failed to bring results, Sonny Werblin fired Ferguson and hired Fred Shero from the Philadelphia Flyers to be the team's GM and head coach. One of the first things Shero did was sign Ulf Nilsson and Anders Herberg to two-year deals. Both players were stars with the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA, and they quickly became hits on Broadway.

The 1978-79 Rangers were the surprise team of the NHL that season, with Nilsson, Hedberg and a rejuvenated Phil Esposito leading the way. But in a game at the Garden against the hated Islanders, Nilsson got his skate caught in a rut on the ice when he was checked into the boards by Dennis Potvin. The result was a fractured ankle for Nilsson that sidelined the Swede the rest of the regular season and most of what would become the deepest playoff run in seven years.

After a stunning upset of their suburban rivals in the semifinals, the Rangers faced the Montreal Canadiens for the Cup. The Habs were looking to capture their fourth consecutive championship; the Blueshirts, their first since 1940. Nilsson gave it a go in the first two games at the Forum, but like Ratelle in '72, wasn't up to it. Shero benched him the rest of the way and Montreal, after dropping game one, would go on to take the next four. It was another bitter pill for a fanbase used to disappointments. 

3. Alex Kovalev - 1997: As I wrote in an earlier piece, the years following the Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup championship were difficult ones for Neil Smith. At times he didn't know which direction he wanted to go: retool or fortify the core. His signing of Wayne Gretzky in the summer of '96 signaled that Smith was going to run it back at least one more year.

The Rangers had a mostly up and down season in 1996-97. Gretzky and Mark Messier gave the Blueshirts a one-two punch down the middle. But it was a winger by the name of Alex Kovalev, who was having the best season of his career, that would go on to have the most consequential impact on the team's fortunes. On January 27, he tore his ACL and was lost for the remainder of the regular and postseason. 

After dispensing with the Florida Panthers in four and upsetting the New Jersey Devils in five, the Rangers went up against the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals. After splitting the first two games at the Spectrum, the Rangers lost the final three. Messier would bolt for the Vancouver Canucks that summer. The core Smith had assembled had finally run its course. 

There's no way of knowing what difference a healthy Kovalev might've made against Philly. Maybe the Rangers still would've lost; or perhaps they've would've won. What is noteworthy is that two months after signing Gretzky, Smith was approached by Hartford Wailers GM Jim Rutherford who offered to trade Brendan Shanahan straight up for Kovalev. Smith turned him down. Imagine what Shanahan could've done playing alongside Gretzky. Who knows? Smith might've been the first Rangers GM since Lester Patrick to boast having two Stanley Cups on his resume. 

4. Mats Zuccarello - 2015: After going all the way to the finals in 2014, the Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy in the 2014-15 season. It was, by far, their best season, statistically, since the Cup year of '94. Rick Nash led the team in goals scored with 42, but the key to their success was their depth.

Mats Zuccarello may only have scored 15 goals, but his tenacity and grit made him a fan favorite. And his teammates could always rely on that tenacity and grit. 

In game five of the Rangers first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Zuccarello was struck in the head by a slap shot from Ryan McDonagh. The winger made it back to the bench but did not return. It was later learned that he suffered a fractured skull that affected his ability to talk. 

Obviously his season was over. While the Rangers didn't need him to prevail over the Pens, not having him against the Washington Capitals almost cost them the series, as the Blueshirts had to come from 3-1 down to advance. But against the Tampa Bay Lightning, they fell short, getting shut out in game seven at the Garden. 

Like the other injuries, this one is hard to quantify. Even if the Rangers had beaten the Bolts, the Chicago Blackhawks might have been a bridge too far, with or without Zuccarello. Still, there's no denying his loss was felt.

Why Shesterkin is the Clear Choice for the Rangers in the Playoffs

By now David Quinn has probably made his decision as to which goaltender he's going to go with against the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs, and unless he saw something the rest of us didn't in the exhibition game against the Islanders, I fully expect Igor Shesterkin will start between the pipes Saturday afternoon.

It's the only choice Quinn could make. Yes, Henrik Lundqvist has started every playoff game the Rangers have been in since his arrival in the 2005-06 season. That's quite a streak, but with all due respect to the King, that's not enough to justify starting him in this round.

This team is not the same team it was back when Lundqvist was a perennial Vezina trophy finalist year in and year out. Hell, it's not even the same team it was a year ago when it was in the middle of its rebuilding effort. The fact is this is one of the youngest teams in the NHL, with an average age of just under 26, and that's with a 38 year-old goalie and two defensemen in their early 30s on the roster. After next season, it will be even younger once those contracts are off the books. To take one more stroll down memory lane for old-time sake would do a disservice to all the hard work management has done over the last two seasons.

Look, no one seriously believes this team is good enough to win the Stanley Cup this year. As I wrote in an earlier piece, if they do beat the Hurricanes, they will likely get trounced by whoever they play in the next round. But this will be an important first step for the core of this team that will allow John Davidson and Jeff Gorton to evaluate where they are in the rebuild and to determine what changes will have to be made in order to get them closer to the grail.

Frankly, this is a rather rare moment in Rangers' history. Not since the Emile Francis era has this franchise been in a position to put together a roster that has the capacity of remaining intact for more than a couple of seasons. If you recall, that team's core was together pretty much from 1968-69 thru 1973-74, and had Jean Ratelle not suffered a season-ending injury in '72 playoffs, they might've beaten the Boston Bruins for the Cup.

Since then the franchise has had its moments when it flirted with success ('79) and even caught the bear once ('94), but such moments were rare and always came with a terrible price tag. The '79 team turned out to be a flash in the pan as aging stars like Phil Esposito eventually retired and established veterans like Ulf Nilsson never lived up to expectations. The '94 Cup team was assembled by jettisoning every prospect in the system, which eventually led to a bare cupboard and a dearth of playoff appearances.

Even the most recent "run" - as some have erroneously called it - began and ended with the importing of aging stars like Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Marty St. Louis. Jagr played three seasons for the Blueshirts before going back to Europe, Shanahan retired after two seasons and St. Louis did the same after a year plus. The sum total for all that wheeling and dealing? Two trips to the conference finals, one to the Cup finals and zero championships.

Hopefully, this management team will not make the same mistakes as its predecessors and assemble a team that even with a flat cap can be a legitimate Cup contender and endure the test of time. If Gorton can find a way to maneuver around next year's cap hell that he, himself, inadvertently created by buying out Kevin Shattenkirk - another expensive import that should never have been signed - he's in good shape going forward to lock up his stars for the foreseeable future.

And one of those stars is Shesterkin. That's why, regardless of what happens over the next few days, he needs to start every game. Like the football Giants did when they benched Eli Manning for Daniel Jones last year, the Rangers need to make a commitment to their youngsters so that their youngsters can get the experience they need to win a title.

Maybe if Lundqvist had played with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad in his prime instead of Rick Nash and Derek Stepan, he might've won that Cup final in 2014. It certainly didn't hurt Mike Richter any having Mark Messier and Brian Leetch for teammates on that '94 team. Great goaltenders can only accomplish so much on their own. They need foot soldiers in front of them to carry the load.

I feel bad for Lundqvist, I really do. He deserved a better fate than this. When he retires he'll be the best goaltender of all time not to win a Cup. And that's unfortunate. But unfortunate or not, that's no excuse for the Rangers to throw good money after bad.

It's Shesterkin's time. This is his team. The future belongs to the young. And the future is now.