We've Relocated

Like season ticket holders at the new Yankee Stadium, I've relocated. I am using a wordpress dashboard because I like the design and layout a little better. The first post is being worked on at the following address: http://lineone.wordpress.com/

Not a good year if you're a NY team that ends in ETS.....

I've been meaning to update this thing but kind of neglected it, you know the way the Rangers neglect to shoot on the power play or the way the Knicks neglect to defend many times.

As I'm posting this, I'm watching the Jets news conference regarding the firing of Eric Mangini as their head coach. Not many coaches get fired after going 9-7 but when you're 8-3 and collapse against mostly inferior appearing teams, this is how it goes down.

I'm no Xs and Os guy, I fake my way through my football knowledge of cover 2s, west coast offense, so I know little of Mangini's technical coaching ability.

That being said, when a team shells out the bucks like the Jets did, brings in a quarterback like Brett Favre, gets rid of Chad Pennington, who wins the AFC East in the Meadowlands and is bad defensively despite being led by a defensive guy like Mangini, that can't be good.

This news also reminds you how fast it can crash down in sports. Just two years ago Mangini was 10-6 and making a small cameo in a Sopranos episode. In that episode, Artie Bucco referred to him as "Mangenius".

Now it seems a majority of Jet fans got what they wanted. And now the watch is on for the next coach of this franchise.

Knicks continue with the theme of change

Recently, a presidential election that contained the theme of change and reform concluded. Now those things are being shifted over to the recent events with the basketball operation at Madison Square Garden.

It started with sending Isiah Thomas packing to a no-see, no-hear consultant job. It also began with Donnie Walsh proclaiming that he was here as a man of change and reform when it came to the financial mess he inherited.

One of those was Stephon Marbury, who is the symbol for dysfunction from the previous administration and is persona non grata with the new administration.

Walsh however had two pieces that were worth something and that was Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph.

Crawford, the team's leading scorer and one of the nicest guys in the NBA, was traded to Golden State for Al Harrington. Randolph, who played one year here without off-court trouble was the team's leading rebounder and he was sent to the LA Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley.

On the surface, and from a strictly basketball perspective, it's not good moves. But the Knicks are a business operating well over the economic structure that has been in place for over 20 years and they could no longer afford to stay over the cap in the long-term.

That would keep them on the sidelines for the great free agent chase of 2010 that would include LeBron James. If you read some of the papers, it seems a forgone conclusion he will here, but there's a lot to do before that can happen.

Granted one player can turn a 25-win team in a 55-win team, but is he the type to come here in 2010 if the Knicks are coming off such a season? Is New York still an attractive place to play? Players get fed questions about the history of the Garden and so on and while that is a factor, does it really hold much clout anymore?

Fans should trust Walsh, he's done it very well in Indiana for the last two decades. But considering the state of affairs with the Knicks before he got here, they have every right to be skeptical until he turns it around and brings back the standard set in the early 1990s.

As for Crawford, it's a business but when he is on and when the Knicks have won, he's usually played a part. Who can forget the 52 point game against Miami when he made 16 shots in a row or the various buzzer beaters?

While not a good defender and shaky at selecting shots, Crawford has always been a class act whether dealing with the media or his assorted charity work and his short-lived blog on Newsday. He was definitely one of the few highlights of the past four-plus seasons of Knick basketball and was someone that you'd want to have when things eventually became better.

You Could See This Coming - Rangers Get Nucked By Vancouver

A trait of a good team is being able to start slowly and come back. A trait of a good team is to jump out early and keep adding.

The first scenario had happened in the last three Ranger home games and appeared to unfold against Wednesday. Just one problem, the pucks were turned over by players in blue jerseys a little much.

Vancouver's first four goals were the result of aggressive play that forced turnovers and bad defenders. The guilty parties were in order of appearance Michal Rozsival, Dmitri Kalinin, Wade Redden, Brandon Dubinsky and Lauri Korpikoski.

If you had watched recent games, you had seem some of the same stuff. The only difference Henrik Lundqvist was there to make the save. While he might have been able to stop the third, fourth and fifth goal, the odd-man rush are a tough one for anyone goalie no matter how good you are.

The Rangers are still on top of the Eastern Conference and still exciting, but there's an incomplete element to their game. They can look as good as they did in the second period a week ago in New Jersey, flat for two periods against Boston and Ottawa and awful against Vancouver, which is the type of team that likes to force those mistakes to happen.

Poor performances happen from time to time. Let those slow starts against Edmonton, Boston and Ottawa serve as a warning. If that's the lesson that was delivered Wednesday, we'll see if the Rangers were paying attention.

Have We Reached the Nexus of the Universe - The Knicks are good

There's a scene in Seinfeld when Kramer calls Jerry from a payphone at East First Street and First Avenue in the Lower East Side and says he's at the Nexus of the Universe.

After years of losing and in the quagmire with no end in sight, we've sort of reached that point with the Knicks. We knew the Knicks would be better, how could they not be after last year, but open up with six wins in nine games, I don't think we saw that coming.

But that's where they are after Friday's 116-106 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Don't let the score fool you, it wasn't that close, they were up 30 and outscored 52-32 over the final 15 minutes or so.

Regardless of the near-collapse and the soft schedule, a win is a win. If the Knicks are jostling in the playoff race, a 10-point win counts as much as a 30-point rout.

The Knicks haven't opened up this well since 1999 - the last time they made the finals. They haven't sniffed three games over .500 since December 29, 2004 when Stephon Marbury scored 32 points against Minnesota following a pep talk from the former front office executive who shall not be named.

He is gone and Marbury's time as America's highest paid no-show worker seems to be ending sometime soon.

The Knicks have not been four games over .500 since the end of the 2000-01 season. They can get there by beating old "friend" Jason Kidd and giving him a real headache instead of the one he claimed to have last December.

Marbury vs. Madison. (Square Garden)

Over 200 years ago, there was a famous case called Marbury vs. Madison involving a series of midnight appointees to fill as many government posts in the waning days of the John Adams administration right before Thomas Jefferson took over.

Fast forward to 2008 and there's a similar situation going on. The old administration (Isiah Thomas) brought in Stephon Marbury in January 2004 and the new administration (Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni) wants him gone.

How much do they want him gone? They're diplomatic about it in their public comments but proof is that they have him sitting in street clothes the last two games. Marbury made that request (possibly to avoid injury risk in the event of a buyout or being waived).



The reason given by the Knicks for benching a man making 22 million is that they want the major minutes to go to others and see what happens. While it was decent in the season opener, Knick fans have seen the results in the last two games when the offense is not working as designed. The awful numbers have turned into a blowout at Philadelphia and a eight-point loss to Milwaukee that really wasn't that close.

Could Marbury have changed any of that? Maybe. But it appears that the new administration is not into instant gratification and considering Marbury's track record of feuding with coaches among other things, they don't feel like it's worth the effort.

And at some point, there will be a sitdown (not the Johnny Sack-Tony Soprano variety) but a meeting will ensue. What happens next could be waivers or even another buyout.

The Knicks lead the NBA in buyouts it seems but Walsh never did it in 22 years at Indiana. He doesn't believe in them but he also hasn't made the amount of mistakes the Knicks had in the eight years since trading Patrick Ewing.

If none of those conclusions are reached, then Marbury will be the most expensive insurance policy in the history of the NBA.

Avery Mania Sweeps NY

If you saw the media crowd around Sean Avery's locker Monday night on the visiting side of MSG, you'd think he was Sidney Crosby or even a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Avery made his much-publicized return to the Garden Monday night and continues his NY tour in Newark and Long Island this week. It was in New York where Avery became most notable in his role as a pest, agitator.

The Rangers record with him in the lineup was 50-20-16 and 9-13-2 without him. It was a number that often got mentioned in the game notes, which is something I'd think Avery's agent would have had to use in contract extension talks.

It's a nice story, agitator scores some goals, says some funny things and the Rangers win. It was the case in 2007 when I asked him for a simple description of his two goals and he quipped: "I just didn't want the fans to keep yelling shoot".

If you're a Ranger fan, keeping him would be nice, but at the same time their record disparity kind of indicted others on the roster. You'd expect a losing record when Jaromir Jagr, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Brendan Shanahan are out of the lineup.

Sure his addition helped in 2007 but when he was hurt, the Rangers' struggles were not due to his absence. It was due to figuring out how to get Drury and Gomez acclimated.

Are the Rangers better without him? It's nice that he can score and agitate but plenty of teams have won with just playing hockey and using their talented players and his antics can get tiresome.

I'd think there was a segment of Ranger management that felt the same way, which would explain them offering four years, 12 million as opposed to the 15.5 million he got from Dallas.

While Avery's tenure here was interesting, the Rangers never made it past the second round. A makeover was needed and Avery leaving is not necessarily a bad thing, although we'll see how the Rangers do.

Their record is good and maybe the fatigue of playing seven games in 11 days has gotten to them in the last four games where they've scored just six times. (not counting the shootout vs. Toronto).

In their first five games, they didn't necessarily put together a full 60 minutes. They got the goals when needed.

Now that they haven't had the goals when needed, the lack of a full 60 minutes is exposed as it was Monday when they couldn't adjust against the Dallas Stars, who defended things the way hockey fans are accustomed to seeing.

As for Avery, his next stop is the Prudential Center with his two "friends" David Clarkson and Martin Brodeur, whom he "affectionately" referred to as a "minor league bonehead" and "fatso".

UPDATE - Besides the antics on the ice, Avery has his share off the ice, including this one with one of the MSG broadcasters.

Media confrontations happen from time to time but doesn't it seem like Avery intended to stir something up there?