Chants...

While I am advocating for Tom Renney to be replaced, in no way do I think he is a bad coach who needs to be ostracized from the league. Like Emile Francis, Lester Patrick, and Mike Keenan before him, Renney will always be remembered as a Ranger coach - regardless of when he is relieved of his duties and regardless of what other teams he eventually coaches.

He brought the team that was predicted to be 15th in the Eastern Conference the year after the lockout and took them to the 6th seed. They were a group of Czechs (Jagr, Straka, Rucinsky, Rozsival, Malik, Sykora), a group of rookies (Moore, Ortmeyer, Hollweg, Prucha), and a group of ragtag veterans (Nylander, Rucchin, Jay Ward, Strudwick, Nieminen), and he took them to within 1 point of the Atlantic Division title.

This year, his loyalty almost got the best of him. To be honest, last year it almost did too, until Jaromir Jagr started playing like a beast and he started relying less on Brendan Shanahan. But this year, he keeps sending out the same players (Gomez, Redden, Naslund, Drury, Rozsival) who aren't getting the job done. Time and time again, the same ineffective players go out on the ice. Sometimes, Markus Naslund gets lucky and connects with 10 seconds left, or Nik Zherdev scored with 10 seconds left, but most of the time, Scott Gomez misses the net and Wade Redden loses the puck. Yet, they are still counted on.

I am merely advocating for his termination because his time has come. He has done all he can with the Rangers, and a replacement is necessary.

In January, February, and March of 2004, the Garden chanted relentlessly for GM (and interim coach) Glen Sather to be fired. (We also chanted "RE-FUND" when they lost a home game.) 

Under no circumstances do I want to hear "Fire Renney" chants. I can care less about a recurrence of the "Fire Sather" chants, because he isn't very likeable, he hasn't done much for this team (whatever good he did, like trading for Jagr and drafting Marc Staal, Artem Anisimov, and Brandon Dubinsky, could've been done by any GM), and replacing him should probably be done sooner rather than later.

But Renney was serviceable as a coach, and put his heart into it, from when he replaced Sather for the final 20 games of the 2003-04 season (5-15-0) to right before the All-Star break this year. He was so good in 05-06 that he was nominated for Coach of the Year.

So no. Please don't chant for Renney's head tomorrow. If it happens, it happens, but treat him with respect.

Bryan's Mid-Year Awards

The whole idea of mid-year awards is retarded. We don't know who's going to make the playoffs. We don't know who's going to crap out down the stretch, and we don't know who's going to make a second-half charge. All we know is that everyone else is doing year-end awards, and so will we. I'll submit my ballot, and perhaps Zach will do so later.

Hart Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: Best scorer on a good team, almost without exception. Either that or an extremely good goalie on an awful team.

- Consensus Pick: Alexander Ovechkin, Capitals.

- My Pick: Ovechkin. I hate to go with the masses, but this one's too easy to pass up. And not just because he's leading the league in goals. It's mostly because he had a crummy October and so did the Capitals. Once Ovechkin picked up his game, the Capitals became the force they were for the second half of last season. That is pretty much the definition of "valuable".

Art Ross Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: The leading point scorer in the league. Obviously.

- Consensus Pick: Evgeni Malkin, Penguins.

- My Pick: Malkin. He's got a 10-point lead, which is a lot to make up. But I think he'll taper off down the stretch. If Pittsburgh is going to be as good as they should be, one line can't do it all.

Calder Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: It's supposed to go to the "top rookie", but it's almost always the first-year player who nets the most points or becomes an above-average starting goalie.

- Consensus Pick: Steve Mason, Blue Jackets.

- My Pick: Bobby Ryan, Ducks. Everyone's high on Mason, and he's done a great job - but how do we know Mason isn't a creation of the Jackets' system? After all, Pascal Leclaire put up similar numbers just one year ago. Ryan, on the other hand, is averaging a point a game for the Ducks and is leading all rookies in goals despite only playing 31 games.

Vezina Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: Martin Brodeur The best goalie in the league - not just based on wins, but on the goalie's ability to carry his team and put that team in a position to win.

- Consensus Pick: Steve Mason, Blue Jackets.

- My Pick: Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers. This is a really tough year to pick a Vezina winner because so many top goalies have missed time and because more teams are rotating goalies. Ultimately, for me, it goes to Lundqvist. His GAA and save percentages aren't anything special, but he's easily the league's best shootout goalie, and since the Rangers have relied so heavily on shootout wins, he gets the nod over other goalies with similar stats.

Norris Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: The top point-getter among defensemen.

- Consensus Pick: Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings.

- My Pick: Mark Streit, Islanders. Call me a homer if you want... but consider the facts. Streit is tied for third in scoring among defensemen. He averages 25 minutes a game. He has 76 blocked shots, which is way more than most of the defensemen atop the scoring charts. And most tellingly, he's a minus-3 on a team that is absolutely atrocious; this minus-3 is the best plus-minus total out of players who have been with the Islanders all year.

Adams Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: The coach of a team who goes from being crappy to being good in one year.

- Consensus Pick: Claude Julien, Bruins.

- My Pick: Mike Keenan, Flames. Most people can't name three players on the Flames. And yet, the Flames lead the Northwest by nine points. Given the travel involved in playing in the same division as Minnesota and Colorado, that's pretty impressive.

Lady Byng Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: A high-scoring player on a good team who doesn't get many penalty minutes.

- Consensus Pick: Nobody really picks the Lady Byng trophy winner at mid-season.

- My Pick: Daniel Sedin, Vancouver. I'm not sure how much more "gentlemanly" you can get than 22 penalty minutes and a total of five hits thrown.

Selke Trophy

- Who Usually Wins: An offensively-inclined player who has a good plus-minus and, more importantly, a solid reputation as a two-way player, whether it's actually true or not.

- Consensus Pick: This is another one nobody really pays attention to until year-end. But the consensus is probably Pavel Datsyuk from Detroit. And since this is as much of a "reputation" award as the NHL offers, he'll probably win it again.

- My Pick: Mike Richards, Philadelphia.

So there you have it. Some prognostication that will, ultimately, mean nothing.

And since this is All-Star Weekend, we will take this opportunity to link to the greatest All-Star moment of my lifetime - the Pond of Dreams short, which was shown at the 2000 All-Star Game. Enjoy.