The mere mention of pingpong balls elicits images of Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko these days, the Rangers famously coming out of the 2020 and 2019 draft lotteries with the respective first and second overall choices.
These are happy images for fans of the Blueshirts, made all the more so by the performances of Lafreniere and Kakko (and running mate Filip Chytil) through this first-round playoff series against the Penguins that they have turned into a playground.
But it was not all that long ago that references to pingpong balls in Rangerstown would have been met with an equal mix of indignation and cynicism. That would have been around 2005. That would have been when the pingpong balls sent Sidney Crosby to Pittsburgh instead of New York.
Remember? The 2004-2005 season had been canceled by the Gary Bettman and Owners’ Lockout II. When settled, there was no mechanism in place to slot teams for the 2005 entry draft for which Crosby would be the singular prize the way Mario Lemieux had been in 1984. Without a preceding season, the Penguins had been deprived of their opportunity to tank for No. 87 the way they had done for No. 66 two decades earlier.
Bettman devised a plan. The commissioner authorized a league-wide, 30-team lottery using a weighted formula determined by recent performance and draft history. The four teams that had missed the playoffs (at least) each of the previous three completed seasons would have the best odds at Crosby at 6.25 percent.
Those teams were the Rangers, Penguins, Sabres and Blue Jackets. By the way, the Blueshirts finished ahead of Pittsburgh by between 11 and 14 points each of those three seasons.
The drawing was done in private at a hotel in midtown Manhattan. Of course it was. The Sabres wound up with the 13th pick. The Jackets came up sixth. The Penguins won it, sparking cries of a fix concocted to save Lemieux’s franchise. The Rangers, who shared the best odds, somehow came up with the 16th pick, from which they would later trade up to 12 and select Marc Staal in the draft.
Sunday’s pre-Game 7 spotlight is on Crosby, who is expected to make his return for this showdown after having missed Game 6 with an undisclosed upper-body injury No. 87 sustained on that endlessly dissected hit from Jacob Trouba midway through the second period of Wednesday’s Game 5.
The fact that Crosby was able to get on the ice and skate with a skills instructor on Friday, practiced on Saturday and is in the mix for Sunday’s soiree at the Garden would seem to rule out the possibility that the center had been concussed.
Still, there are “will he or won’t he?” moments preceding the game. At the Garden, that always goes back to 1970, the Knicks and Willis Reed’s dramatic entry onto the court late in the warm-up for Game 7 of the NBA finals against the Lakers. It is New York sports legend and lore.
The Rangers thought they kind of had one of those in 2006 with Jaromir Jagr after No. 68 had sustained a left shoulder dislocation late in Game 1 of the first round against the Devils that had sidelined him for Game 2 at the Meadowlands. It was 6-1, the Devils were on a power play, and for some unknown reason Tom Renney, the head coach, thought it was a good idea to have Jagr out killing a penalty in the final five minutes of the game. Frustrated, No. 68 took a wild swing at Scott Gomez as the-then Devils’ center went wide on him and threw out his shoulder.
Jagr had carried the Blueshirts to a surprise playoff berth after a seven-year drought while establishing franchise records with 54 goals and 123 points. He was the club’s spiritual leader. And his presence was in severe doubt for Game 3 of the series that marked the first postseason match at the Garden since 1997.
After saying the previous day that it would take “a miracle” for him to play, Jagr skated onto the ice for warm-ups to a thundering ovation. His presence had energized the crowd. It did not energize the Rangers, however, through a 3-0 defeat in which the winger played an ineffective 17:09. Two days later, Jagr tried it again, but was able to take only the opening shift that lasted 49 seconds in a 4-2 defeat that sealed New Jersey’s sweep.
Pffft.
Emotion isn’t always enough. The Rangers learned that 16 years ago. On Sunday, the Blueshirts were fixing to teach that lesson to the Penguins.