JIM LANG ON SPORTS

The New York Rangers 

It has been 20 years since the Rangers have been in the Stanley Cup Final. As a matter of fact, since 1950 the Rangers have only been to the Cup Final a total of four times. They lost in 1950, 1972 and 1979, and then they beat the Canucks in that amazing seven game series in 1994.

Here we are in 2014 and the Rangers are in a perfect position to go back to the Cup Final for the first time since the glory days of Mark Messier, Adam Graves and Brian Leetch. They are heading home with a two-nothing series lead on the Canadiens and the Habs are missing goalie Carey Price for the rest of the series because of a knee injury.

The Rangers have no such goaltending concerns. Henrik Lundqvist has looked every bit the World Class goaltender that he is and seems to playing better the deeper the Rangers go into the playoffs.

For years Rangers General Manager Glen Sather was criticized for his mis-managing of the salary cap and his decision making when it came to free agents and trades. But the deeper this year’s Rangers team goes into the playoffs maybe it is time to give Sather a little credit for the team he has built on Broadway. The fact the Rangers have gone as far as they have in the playoffs with very little offensive contribution from Rick Nash speaks volumes of the kind of depth in the organization.

With two more wins Alain Vigneault will have led his second team to the Cup Final in the last four years. In today’s NHL that is an impressive accomplishment.

For bitter Canucks fans the sight of Vigneault back in the Cup Final, coaching another team, has got to hurt.

Legions of Canadiens fans are blaming all of their problems in this series on the injury to Carey Price. Losing Price sucks, but that isn’t the only reason the Habs are losing.

Here is the other reason the Habs are losing; the Rangers are a good team. The Rangers have a nice combination of speed and size, they’re well coached, they have world class goaltending and in Martin St. Louis, they have a savvy veteran who knows what it takes to win in the post-season.

You add that all up and you have a team, and a GM that should be getting more credit for their efforts.

Despite all of the praise going their way the Rangers are still very wary of being too over-confident. I briefly spoke to someone in their front office this week and they used the old hockey truism; the
deeper you go into the post-season, the harder it is to win.

The Guelph Storm

Guelph Storm Coach Scott Walker finished his playing career in the 2009/10 season. In 2010/11 he took over as the Head Coach of the Storm. Four years later he has led his power-house team into the Championship game of the Master Card Memorial Cup.

That’s not too shabby for an ex-player with no previous coaching experience.

Walker isn’t just the Coach of the Storm; he’s also the owner of the team. His leading scorer in the playoffs is none other than Kerby Rychel; the son of Windsor Spitfires GM and Vice-President, Warren Rychel.

I like seeing so many ex-players investing their time and their money into Major Junior Hockey.

These men didn’t get to the NHL and then stay in the league for any length of time with-out knowing a thing or two about the game and what it takes to get there.

Passing along these hockey lessons and life lessons will benefit all of their players, not just the ones that are lucky enough to get to the NHL.

Golf

This is the week I dust off my golf clubs and hit the driving range for the first time this season.

Every year I pick up my clubs I tell myself that this is the year I will fix my slice. And every year I fail. I am fine from 150 yards in. But once I grab the driver the curse of my slice rears its ugly head.

I love golf. I love hanging out with the guys, hacking around the course and having a laugh. I pride myself on not pretending to be a better golfer than I am. I’m mediocre at best and I make no bones about it. I hate playing with guys who act like they are the second coming of Bubba Watson and spray the ball all over the course. What’s worse is those same guys get all pissed off at their bad shots and end up ruining my round with their bad attitude. For the most part I pick my golf partners carefully. That way I know I will have a good time and enjoy the company of the guys I’m playing with.

Now every once in a while I play in media events and end up getting teamed up with guys I don’t know. Years ago I was part of an event and got teamed up with three guys. They seemed nice enough when we were introduced. Well on the first hole I am standing about 10 yards at the back of the tee box waiting my turn. The first guy stops in mid swing and all three of them proceed to chew me out for standing where I was because I was distracting him. Later on I missed a tough putt by like 2 inches and they chirped me for not carrying my weight.

Near the end of what turned out to be a very long round we were on a par 5 with a severe dog leg to the left. Well sure enough we were waiting to make our approach shots when someone crushed their blind tee shot and it skipped by us. Now I was blown away that anyone could hit a drive that far. It must have carried over 300 yards. Well one of the guys I was playing with snapped that the ball got close to him and was threatening the guy after he came over to apologize.

The guy apologizing was 6 foot, 6 inch Dan Ladouceur, one of the toughest guys to ever play for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League. Dan is also a member of the Durham Regional Police Tactical weapons unit. Lucky for the guy I was playing with Dan has a long fuse and kept apologizing for almost hitting him with his tee shot. Afterwards in the parking lot Dan, Steve Toll and some other members of the Toronto Rock came up to me and said “what was with that guy?”

I didn’t know what to say to them, other than I never met the guy before today.

So if you are planning on hitting the links this weekend, please don’t be a jerk.