Mara on the outs?

I was poking around on Hockeytraderumors.com and I found an interesting story which links to another story on boston.com. When I was reading up on the posts on the bottom I came across a couple of interesting ones, but first I wanted to start out by reminding everyone how Paul Mara came to the New York Rangers. It was a trade straight up for an aging Aaron Ward who just through the chemistry off in the locker room by questioning Jagr's leadership ability. In my expert opinion good trade; at least 5,000 times better than the trade that sent Mike York to Edmonton. Now that being said Sather knew what he was taking on with that contract and I think he did what he had to keep his team focused and got a highly talented player in return for the veteran. Aaron Ward was a good defenseman with the Rangers but didn't really fit in the locker room and that’s how he found his way out of New York.

So it looks like Mara may be on his way out. In my opinion not a good move either sending him down or trading him away (this of course will depend on what comes back to the Rangers of course) He is playing better than some of the defense personally I think he is playing up there in the top 4 out of the defensemen we have on the roster now. He has looked well with Staal and I think they make a decent pair not the best but until Renney takes apart that waste of space that is Rosival and Malik they will be stuck together. Now it is easy to pick apart these defensemen so early in the year this is because there are so damn many of them. Now I read on the same post in the comments at Pock would be a better choice. This may be true to get into the top 6 but not over Mara I think they have similar skills and Pocks aren’t as good as Mara’s are. But I do think giving Malik a sit down might be a good decision to get Pock into the lineup. Now I know how many people are thinking shit everyone hates Malik you too? Actually I do but I understand hockey, I know Malik isn’t really helping the team much but benching him for a long period of time will do nothing for his trade stock. Right now lets face it Malik is worth more on the Rangers roster than on the trade block or the press box. I do think that Malik needs a break though from the fans for a little while. This guy has made a bunch of mistakes on the ice and from what I can tell has not be reprimanded at all. You make dumb mistakes you don’t play that should be plain and simple. I think he has made enough so far to spend a night in the film room watching his mistakes over and over.

Yes, I know I am being highly critical in my first 2 blog entries of the team and where people should be playing. I think Mara has been playing with heart and has made of couple of dumb mistakes but to put him in the dog house and not Malik for similar mistakes is just dumb. If you bench one the other should be sat. Now I know the people that come off saying Malik is your best plus/minus guy stop trying to take him off the ice. Well he isn’t so far this year; Marty Straka is. Malik also is on the ice for a lot more goals against than the +/- shows since he is on the penalty kill which does not register on +/-. I also understand the other perspective of Malik sucks and we want him out of NY. Here are the 2 comments I heard from my first game in MSG… “This is all Malik’s fault… I hate Malik, Lundqvist is the best goalie ever and Malik is ruining everything” said the young pimply faced boy behind me who began to cry while he was speaking. “I don’t understand why they brought Malik back, I mean we booed Poti everytime he touched the puck and they got rid of him why didn’t they get rid of Malik?” random guy behind me, at least he wasn’t crying. Ok let’s start with the first quote, no it is not all Malik’s fault he wasn’t even on the ice for one of the goals against, and the second one was not something Henrik was going to stop anyway; also Lundqvist while great is not the best goalie ever. At least not yet hopefully soon though. Now onto the second quote, No you did nothing to get Poti out of town. Tom Poti played out the remainder of his contract in New York and ever then you couldn’t boo him out of town because he just went to Long Island. Tom Poti didn’t come back because they did not want to resign a bad defenseman, not because you booed him out of town. That’s why Malik is back.

Side note, if you keep booing a player you will not get a good return on a player in a trade. Boo Malik all you want he isn’t going anywhere and he trade value with decrease with each boo. Now you may ask why, and I will give you an economics explanation for this. There is no demand for Malik in New York at least for the Rangers and the fans boo him every game because they hate him, this decreases his value because lets face it other teams know they want him out. Now another team can give nothing in return to get Malik off our hands, let’s say 8^th round pick or a player that will never amount to any thing that is in the ECHL. Since there is a high demand to trade Malik and at this point from many fan’s perspectives for anything; a bad trade will occur. Sather knows this and so does every GM in the league. Lay off him and maybe he will play better and he can leave New York with a decent return.

So in conclusion, if you bench Mara bench Malik. Stop booing Malik and ummmm.... yea sorry about the economics talk. Mara should stay in the lineup, Pock should play from Malik and let's go Rangers. Also to continue from my thought from a couple days ago. I tried my little experiment with Dubinsky on NHL 08 and have managed 10 goals in 2 games. Just something to think about. Also the combinations of Betts, Avery and Hollweg has been more impressive than ever thought. Hollweg 2 goals, 1 assist in 2 games, Avery 1 goal 1 helper.