Despite recent success, Rangers still far from a parade of their own

November 6, 5:18 PMNew York Rangers ExaminerRob Cristino

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The Yankees World Series Parade (AP Photo).

After watching the New York Yankees march down the Canyon of Heroes, celebrating their well deserved 2009 World Series Championship over the Philadelphia Phillies, it got me thinking about the future of the New York Rangers organization.

When will it be the Rangers’ turn to march in a parade down Broadway?

It’s been 15 long years since the Rangers last won the Stanley Cup, back in that magical 1993-94 season, where the Blueshirts were led by Mark Messier, Mike Richter, Brian Leetch, and Adam Graves.

The organization tried to bring back that glory of the 1994 season by luring players, who were way past their prime, to New York with huge contracts.

The Rangers have since seen countless “big name” players come and go, acquiring the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Bobby Holik, Alexei Kovalev, Anson Carter, Petr Nedved, Jaromir Jagr etc, with the same result of no Stanley Cup Championship (and in some cases, they didn’t even make the playoffs).

The Rangers have come a long way since ending their seven-year playoff drought, a terrible span that started in 1997-98 and ended a year after the 2004-05 NHL Lockout, yet they still haven’t come close to bringing the Stanley Cup back to New York.

Each of the last four playoffs have ended with an ugly exit for the Rangers, the latest being a Game 7 loss to the Washington Capitals in the 2009 NHL Playoffs.

General Manager Glen Sather has once again reconstructed his Rangers team, addressing the lack of offense that really doomed the previous roster. Superstar Marian Gaborik has been great in his debut season in New York, netting 21 points in 15 games.

Sure, the acquisitions of newly made Alternate Captain Vaclav Prospal, the veteran sniper in Ales Kotalik, and the inconsistent Christopher Higgins have made a significant impact for New York, but it’s mostly been the play of Gaborik that has drawn the most attention on the offensive side of the puck.

Gaborik has 12 goals and nine assists with a Plus/Minus rating of six. Simply put, he’s a game changer, a difference maker that was sorely missed last season and prior seasons.

As the Rangers are getting much more offense out of their players thus far this season, the defense is slowly beginning to take shape, but it's not quite there yet.

No matter how you slice it and dice it, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden are not worth the contracts they were given, but they both have played considerably better at the start of the 2009-10 season as compared to last season.

Marc Staal and Dan Girardi get a lot of attention as being the top two defensemen in New York (at least last season they did), but the play of rookies Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto are slowly taking away their thunder.

Both Gilroy and Del Zotto have been very impressive this season and continue to only get better. Del Zotto has 13 points in 17 games (second to rookie James van Riemsdyk, who has 14), while Gilroy has been solid on the defensive side of the puck and has contributed incredibly to the offensive rush, not to mention his Plus/Minus rating of six.

The process of putting the correct pieces together to make a legitimate contender is under way. How the team continues to play down the line is anyone’s guess.

The New York Rangers are currently 10-6-1 and are coming off a recent 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at the Rexall Place. They will close out their three-game road trip in Western Canada with a Sunday night game at 10:00 PM EST against the Calgary Flames at Pengrowth Saddledome.