Brendan Shanahan feature for the Detroit Free Press
Shanny to face Wings on Monday for 1st time as Ranger
February 2, 2007
BY DENIS GORMAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Nothing has changed for Brendan Shanahan.
He is still a scorer: On opening night, he scored two goals and celebrated with his familiar fist-pump.
He still has a sense of humor: On a December night in Ottawa, he had reporters in stitches when he mocked the Senators' penchant for conducting postgame interviews on stationary bikes.
He still knows how to fight: Two weeks later, he squared off with Capitals tough guy Donald Brashear at center ice, after Brashear spent an evening running, elbowing and slashing Shanahan's teammates.
He is still an All-Star: He was captain of the Eastern Conference squad last month in Dallas.
No, nothing has changed for Shanahan, except for the crest on the sweater. Instead of the winged wheel, he has "Rangers" emblazoned across his chest. Nothing has changed, except instead of skating for the Hockeytown denizens, the future Hall of Famer scores goals on Broadway.
Nothing has changed? Everything has changed.
Monday night in New York, Shanahan faces the Red Wings, his former team, for the first time since signing a one-year, $4-million, free-agent contract July 9. Certainly, there will be memories of nine seasons in Detroit. The standing playoff dates. The three Stanley Cups. Three Presidents' Trophies. Six division titles. 309 goals and 324 assists. How could there not be memories?
"You'd like to say it'd be just another game, but I'd be lying," Shanahan, 38, said recently at the Rangers' practice facility. "It'll be strange seeing those uniforms on the ice, and a lot of the guys I played with are still there.
"When you've had as much fun and success (as I did with the Red Wings), you look back on it fondly. A lot of the things I try to do every day were lessons I learned with Detroit. It's an organization that's respected throughout the league. A lot of teams -- including ours -- want to get what they have, (those) expectations and results.
"I don't know if those games are that fun to play. For a player who has left a team, the first game back or against his old teammates is a tough one to play."
The Rangers' season has been a study in inconsistency. At 25-22-4, they're third in the Atlantic Division, 14 points behind the Devils, and 10th in the Eastern Conference. They've had winning streaks of three, four and five games. They've also had losing stretches of three, four and seven games.
The only consistent has been Shanahan, the left wing from Mimico, Ontario. He leads the team in goals with 26 and is fourth in assists (23) and points (49).
His statistics are more impressive when you consider he's not paired with a center who can ably set him up. Instead of Steve Yzerman, Shanahan is regularly skating with Matt Cullen and Jason Krog.
The Rangers haven't experienced much success the past decade -- they were swept in the first round of last season's playoffs, their first postseason appearance since 1997 -- so Shanahan's role is to mentor the young players while providing his usual power forward game.
Coach Tom Renney feels especially lucky to have Shanahan. It's easy for Renney to point to him as an example the rest of the team can follow.
"He's brought the experience of being a winner, a champion. With that, he's brought the incumbent work habits and personal preparation, day in and day out, being a professional athlete," Renney said. "Along with that is his leadership ability; the ways he's affected his teams in the past has been a huge help to us, naturally. And he's just a warrior; he plays with the type of vigor a younger player plays with."
Away from the rink, Shanahan has taken to New York. He lives in downtown Manhattan, and takes the subway to and from Madison Square Garden on game days. He estimates the trip from his apartment to the locker room takes 12 minutes.
"It's a different way of living; I haven't driven a car in about two months," Shanahan said, laughing. "I had only, up until this year, lived in the suburbs with backyards, front yards; now I live downtown in a building. So it's a totally different lifestyle.
"The convenience is pretty good, and every once in a while you get recognized down in the subway. It's mostly someone going to the game themselves, wishing you luck. If you ever walk through Penn Station, people don't have much time to talk. People are usually on their way somewhere, and in passing will say, 'Good luck.' "
With the Wings a virtual playoff lock and the Rangers in contention for the Eastern Conference's eighth seed, the possibility of a New York-Detroit Stanley Cup finals seems like a longshot, but delicious, nonetheless. Surely, Shanahan has considered the possibility.
"I haven't had a private moment where I thought about that," he said. "There's so much work right in front of us that if that scenario played out, I would address it and give it thought. But there's so much more important work for us to get through to make the playoffs. To get into the playoffs is our first goal. I think we can be a team that's very dangerous in the playoffs."
He's talking about the playoffs. So everything's the same.
Except everything is different.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/SPORTS05/702020412/1048/BUSINESS05
February 2, 2007
BY DENIS GORMAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Nothing has changed for Brendan Shanahan.
He is still a scorer: On opening night, he scored two goals and celebrated with his familiar fist-pump.
He still has a sense of humor: On a December night in Ottawa, he had reporters in stitches when he mocked the Senators' penchant for conducting postgame interviews on stationary bikes.
He still knows how to fight: Two weeks later, he squared off with Capitals tough guy Donald Brashear at center ice, after Brashear spent an evening running, elbowing and slashing Shanahan's teammates.
He is still an All-Star: He was captain of the Eastern Conference squad last month in Dallas.
No, nothing has changed for Shanahan, except for the crest on the sweater. Instead of the winged wheel, he has "Rangers" emblazoned across his chest. Nothing has changed, except instead of skating for the Hockeytown denizens, the future Hall of Famer scores goals on Broadway.
Nothing has changed? Everything has changed.
Monday night in New York, Shanahan faces the Red Wings, his former team, for the first time since signing a one-year, $4-million, free-agent contract July 9. Certainly, there will be memories of nine seasons in Detroit. The standing playoff dates. The three Stanley Cups. Three Presidents' Trophies. Six division titles. 309 goals and 324 assists. How could there not be memories?
"You'd like to say it'd be just another game, but I'd be lying," Shanahan, 38, said recently at the Rangers' practice facility. "It'll be strange seeing those uniforms on the ice, and a lot of the guys I played with are still there.
"When you've had as much fun and success (as I did with the Red Wings), you look back on it fondly. A lot of the things I try to do every day were lessons I learned with Detroit. It's an organization that's respected throughout the league. A lot of teams -- including ours -- want to get what they have, (those) expectations and results.
"I don't know if those games are that fun to play. For a player who has left a team, the first game back or against his old teammates is a tough one to play."
The Rangers' season has been a study in inconsistency. At 25-22-4, they're third in the Atlantic Division, 14 points behind the Devils, and 10th in the Eastern Conference. They've had winning streaks of three, four and five games. They've also had losing stretches of three, four and seven games.
The only consistent has been Shanahan, the left wing from Mimico, Ontario. He leads the team in goals with 26 and is fourth in assists (23) and points (49).
His statistics are more impressive when you consider he's not paired with a center who can ably set him up. Instead of Steve Yzerman, Shanahan is regularly skating with Matt Cullen and Jason Krog.
The Rangers haven't experienced much success the past decade -- they were swept in the first round of last season's playoffs, their first postseason appearance since 1997 -- so Shanahan's role is to mentor the young players while providing his usual power forward game.
Coach Tom Renney feels especially lucky to have Shanahan. It's easy for Renney to point to him as an example the rest of the team can follow.
"He's brought the experience of being a winner, a champion. With that, he's brought the incumbent work habits and personal preparation, day in and day out, being a professional athlete," Renney said. "Along with that is his leadership ability; the ways he's affected his teams in the past has been a huge help to us, naturally. And he's just a warrior; he plays with the type of vigor a younger player plays with."
Away from the rink, Shanahan has taken to New York. He lives in downtown Manhattan, and takes the subway to and from Madison Square Garden on game days. He estimates the trip from his apartment to the locker room takes 12 minutes.
"It's a different way of living; I haven't driven a car in about two months," Shanahan said, laughing. "I had only, up until this year, lived in the suburbs with backyards, front yards; now I live downtown in a building. So it's a totally different lifestyle.
"The convenience is pretty good, and every once in a while you get recognized down in the subway. It's mostly someone going to the game themselves, wishing you luck. If you ever walk through Penn Station, people don't have much time to talk. People are usually on their way somewhere, and in passing will say, 'Good luck.' "
With the Wings a virtual playoff lock and the Rangers in contention for the Eastern Conference's eighth seed, the possibility of a New York-Detroit Stanley Cup finals seems like a longshot, but delicious, nonetheless. Surely, Shanahan has considered the possibility.
"I haven't had a private moment where I thought about that," he said. "There's so much work right in front of us that if that scenario played out, I would address it and give it thought. But there's so much more important work for us to get through to make the playoffs. To get into the playoffs is our first goal. I think we can be a team that's very dangerous in the playoffs."
He's talking about the playoffs. So everything's the same.
Except everything is different.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070202/SPORTS05/702020412/1048/BUSINESS05
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:18 AM
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