4 Nations Face-Off Series: All Time NYR Team Canada B-Team Roster
Because of Canada's historical NHL depth, this is the B-Team. But that doesn't make them an any less legendary group of Rangers players as we round out our 4 Nations Face-Off All Time Rangers Teams.
Happy 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Day to all who celebrate.
As the tournament wraps up tonight, we conclude our All-Time NYR Rosters with our Canadian "B" Team. Make no mistake, this roster may be the "B-Team," but there certainly isn't any shortage of hall of famers and Rangers legends.
Thanks to everyone who has followed along with this series! We hope you had as much fun reading and reminiscing on some of these names as we did constructing the teams.
First Line: Rick Nash - Eric Lindros - Mike Gartner
When the Rangers traded for Eric Lindros, a collective groan was heard throughout Manhattan. Eight years earlier, this would have been a phenomenal win, and the Rangers even made a valiant attempt to pry him out of Quebec, which needed an arbitrator to review and decide whether Philadelphia’s offer was accepted first. At his peak, Lindros was as dominant as any player you could create in a video game. Still, recurring head injuries affected him immensely. Even though he averaged .82 ppg with the Rangers, he was still a shadow of his former self.
Rick Nash was supposed to be the missing piece, but like many other blockbuster Rangers trades, things just didn't pan out. The Rangers traded for Nash in the summer of 2012 and the hype and anticipation quickly mounted, but fans were forced to endure an even longer wait due to the 2012 lockout. While many fans would try and tell you his stay on Broadway was underwhelming, that simply wasn't true. In fact, Nash scored the most goals in a single season of his entire career in Rangers' blue. While in New York, he was plagued by concussion issues and struggled to regain the composure and style of play that saw him so often overpower and finagle his way toward the inside of the ice, where it seemed he could score goals at will. He was criticized as a perimeter player, and while that wasn't entirely true, there was some validity to the statement at the end of his career. He was no longer playing with the tenacity that was a core value in how he approached the game in his younger years.
It's not every season that a team trades a prolific goal scorer away to gear up for a Stanley Cup run, but that's just what the Rangers did in sending Mike Gartner out of town. Infamously disliked by head coach Mike Keenan, Gartner was shipped out for a return of Glenn Anderson. It worked out...right? The Rangers won the Cup, but Anderson underwhelmed and moved on that offseason, and Gartner continued scoring at a high clip until the end of his career.
