THE RANGERS FIRED THE WRONG MAN

Tom Renney was fired today as head coach of the New York Rangers after a little more than four and a half seasons behind the bench. The Rangers season is spiraling out of control, having lost 10 of 12, and Renney is the one to ultimately pay the price. Coaches are often the scapegoats on struggling teams, even if they aren't necessarily the ones who's performance needs review, and that appears to be the case with Renney. It is general manager Glen Sather, the man who fired Renney, who deserves to be canned.

Sather has given some ridiculous contracts out in the past couple of years, which makes the Rangers situation even more dire. With the March 4 deadline arriving soon, teams in the Rangers situation usually look to make a trade. But New York probably won't be able to do that, with Chris Drury ($7,050,000 cap hit), Scott Gomez ($7,357,000 cap hit), Wade Redden ($6,500,000 cap hit), Henrik Lundqvist ($6,875,000 cap hit), and Michael Rozsival ($5,000,000 cap hit) clogging up all of the team's salary cap space. Markus Naslund was brought in last offseason to sure up the club's scoring a little more, but the 35-year-old hardly seems worth his $5,000,000 salary, as he is a -14 through 61 games in New York. To make matters worse, Sather gave Redden a partial no-trade clause in his six year, $39 million deal, and Naslund has a full no-movement clause as well.

The decision to let Brendan Shanahan, who scored 23 goals last season for the blueshirts, leave was another costly decision, as was the uncerimonious parting from former captain Jaromir Jagr. Jagr now plays for Omsk in Russia, and Shanahan is still in the Atlantic Division, now with the New Jersey Devils. Don't you think the Rangers could use a little more punch up front with either of these two guys?

The Rangers, who are 2-7-3 in their last 12 games, are certainly lacking offensive firepower. They score only 2.33 goals per game, which ranks 29th in the 30 team league, and have scored two goals or less in their last 12 losses. Ultimately it was Renney who took the blame, which is why he is now looking for work. If the blueshirts can't pull themselves out of this tailspin soon, maybe it's time for Sather to start updating his resume as well.