Normally I would be a bit more skeptical of breaking news that's preceded by nothing more than "per source", seeing as that's become the sports media's way of implying that they've finished exchanging whispers and their game of telephone has reached it's conclusion. However, this particular breaking news actually makes so little sense that I'm feeling more and more inclined to treat it as fact. After all, Ilya Kovalchuk and the New York Rangers currently make for such a horrific match that no one, in their right mind, would comfortably presume that they were getting together unless they had verification that was the case. In theory, the team whose organizational philosophy has always revolved around acquiring shooting stars as their brightness begins to fade is the perfect destination for a soon-to-be 35 year old that, while still very talented, is well past his prime. Adding him to a list of names that's awe-inspiring when you consider how little they accomplished in New York actually seems fitting. Wayne Gretzky, Eric Lindros, Pavel Bure, Bobby Holik, Chris Drury, Brad Richards, Scott Gomez, Dan Boyle, Keith Yandle, Rick Nash. Those underwhelming additions could use a self-serving left winger to continue the Blueshirts' rich history of bolstering aging players' bank accounts. That is, if it weren't for the recently publicized priorities of the two parties in question. First and foremost, Ilya Kovalchuk, who - despite shredding his contract and up and leaving the NHL to play for a stacked team in an inferior league - is now apparently dying to hoist a trophy that actually has some prestige...
And then, the New York Rangers, who - after decades of doing almost the exact opposite - made a mid-season insistence that they will be changing the direction of their franchise by way of "young, competitive players that combine speed, skill, and character"...
The only scenario in which those two thought processes could possibly meet is in the VIP section of an upscale NYC club after relapsing on their drug of choice. In this particular instance, the substance they allegedly chose to abuse is the spotlight. I don't know which entity is more desperate for attention, but I've seen far too many headlines hijacked by the player in question and too many offseasons won by the organization in question to believe there's nothing suspicious about the timing of this announcement. The Devils officially have a playoff matchup to call their own and the Rangers don't for the first time since his abrupt departure, and Ilya Kovalchuk almost immediately calls for the dropping of this bomb? Kudos to him for being able to build up a senseless grudge against the organization that he (in retrospect, thankfully) wronged, but this is the one time, throughout the last six years, in which Devils' fans have an immunity built up to the ghosts of untimely retirement's past. Seriously though, it this is indeed true, there are people whose gym memberships became nothing more than a monthly, directly-deposited donation by Valentines Day that have clung more tightly to their resolutions than either Ilya Kovalchuk or the New York Rangers. The former finally wanted to win now, the latter finally dedicated themselves to winning later, and instead of sticking to those goals they both reportedly made a relatively long-term commitment to their kryptonite during their first withdrawal. In a laughable way that's best encapsulated by every relationship that's either motivated by money or bred out of convenience, this marriage is almost poetic in how doomed it would be to fail. The Rangers are trying to shift the entirety of their culture, and in doing so they are trusting a proven mercenary with a fully-guaranteed, multi-year contract to presumably provide veteran leadership, or something very, very unlike it, to a team that's admittedly a ways away from competing? Might as well hire Patrick Roy to bring a calm, trusted voice behind the bench, because if that's supposed to be an example of parallel thinking then it runs perpendicular to any sort of building process. You can call me a salty Devils' fan, but I have been seasoned by nothing more than historically supported facts that show that the Rangers, in conjunction with Ilya Kovalchuk, don't stand to have any real success in the next 2-3 seasons. As far as I'm concerned, this makes New Jersey's undeniable upward trajectory that much sweeter in that there's only one team to wish the worst upon going forward. Kovy may have taken the money, the Rangers may have taken the bait, and both of them may have sacrificed what they actually wanted to satisfy their incessant need to be newsworthy. With the playoffs on the Devils' horizon, the sun could already be setting on the Rangers' rebuild. If the repetition of a predictably disappointing history was the plot line, you honestly couldn't write a better script.
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