THE thrill isn’t gone, even if both ACLs are. In their place, Mike Richter has the tendons of cadavers running diagonally down both knees, which makes him part Dead Man Kicking life back into the Rangers.
Certainly there would have been no shortage of potential donors from teammates of the last four miserable seasons, but Dr. Bart Nisonson told Richter the last thing he should want is the knee parts of an athlete. After watching Kevin Hatcher, who would disagree?
“The doc said you want someone who hasn’t been grinding that knee his whole life,” said Richter. “You want a coach potato.”
It could be the tendons of Alexandre Daigle, then, that helped kick out 40 Atlanta shots Sunday night and can handle easily that many again from the Stanley Cup champion Avalanche tonight. Richter has faced worse, like knee blowouts 10 months apart, like becoming the light at the end of the funnel for a team spiraling downwards since winning the 1994 Stanley Cup.
Knock on Eric Lindros’ or Theo Fleury’s heads, the Rangers are off to a terrific start, which certainly beats a poke in Bryan Berard’s eye, even if it all still seems almost as fragile as Richter’s 14-year tenure became. He was all-but-outta here to the Blues in February when his right skate went to the post and his knee exploded.
“A trade may have been a good thing under the circumstances for me, St. Louis, and even the Rangers,” he said. “But it never got to the point I wanted out.
“This is the only team I have ever played for. You feel loyalty and confidence you can change it. After 1997, no way I would have believed we would go through four years of hell. You know the Rangers have built a good team before and have money to spend, so you deceive yourself.
“When they replace Mark Messier’s 36 goals with two checkers, you say, ‘If we have to win games 2-1, then fine.’ You don’t look at it like ‘Make the playoffs with this team?’ Because that would kill you.”
The Rangers became a study for medical school labs, never mind that Richter continued to have far more good days and years than bad. That track record still didn’t earn him any warm fuzzies within Glen Sather, the new GM.
“I’ve watched tapes,” Richter said. “At the beginning, I played bleepin’ well. But to keep the swelling down, I wasn’t practicing and that took its toll.”
Ron Low paid it for lack of confidence in Kirk McLean, starting Richter 20 times in 23 games in one stretch last season.
“With more three-games-in-four-nights than I could ever remember,” he said, “it was killing me.”
The Rangers, too. By early February, Richter had it back together enough to be worth more to a contender. But the knee went, as did the Sather-coveted Nikolai Khabibulin, in a trade from Phoenix to Tampa Bay.
“I hit the left knee hard against the post in Florida and it scared me,” he said. “I was amazed it handled that shock really well, but the doctor said after it heals, recurrences are few.”
He’ll be fine, for an even better reason. If fate’s hand at keeping Richter in New York wasn’t obvious when he popped back up through the floorboards as Neil Smith’s 1998 deal with Curtis Joseph was falling through, it surely is as clear now as the goalie’s head remained through two rehabs.
“Before I even fell to the ground, I knew what had happened,” Richter said. “And I just couldn’t believe it.
“But the second time abound, you’re not disappointed when you can’t walk too well after two weeks or when you watch 70-year old ladies lifting more than you can. Two summers in a row wears on you, but I had already done it, so why couldn’t I again? While it’s not enjoyable, you know it’s worth it.”