Game On!

Ask any Rangers fan worth his weight in blue shirts who should captain Tom Renney's club next and the knee-jerk reaction invariably will be Chris Drury.

As knee-jerks go, there's nothing really jerky about that. It makes sense in a lot of ways, starting with the fact that Chris' leadership qualities were evident in Denver, Buffalo and other NHL points East and West — if not so noticeable on Seventh Avenue. That, of course, was primarily because Jaromir Jagr wore the "C" — for better AND worse — and nobody was going to step on Double J's toes; least of all the diffident Drury. But Jagr has emigrated to the Omsk Oh-mys — or whatever they're called on the frozen tundra — and the captaincy is as vacant as a Ryan Hollweg scoring attempt.

I have no idea what the high command is thinking. For all we know, they might even opt for a rotating captaincy, a la Jacques Lemaire's Minnesota system. Then again, there might be a repeat of the 2005-06 plan — when Jagr rejected the offer to officially lead the team -- and simply have no one wear the "C."

The Maven's guess is that, yes, there will be a captain and, NO, Drury does not automatically taste the alphabet soup, despite his honorable record in the league.

How about Scott Gomez?

Such a thought would have been heresy in other years when immaturity — fun as it was for all of us, especially the media — was Scotty's middle name and dressing room bantering was his forte. Never, during his Devils years, would anyone have even dreamed of Gomez as a captain. But that was then, and now we have a 28-year-old (29 in December) who likely will be a Ranger for the rest of his hockey life and who has discovered maturity without actually losing the "joie de vivre" that has endeared him to teammates and fans, if not the opposition.

Behind the beaming facade is a serious hockey player who sees things clearly and sees them whole, who is just ripe to be a Ranger leader for seasons to come and who has the artistic credentials as an extra added attraction.

Remember that Jagr rejected the first offer of the captaincy on the grounds that he didn't believe that his command of English was good enough for him to deal with the media on a nightly basis. Whether that was a copout or not is irrelevant — I considered it a poor alibi — what matters is that Gomez handles the media as adroitly as a New York Philharmonic violinist strokes his Stradivarius with the bow. By contrast, Drury is adequate, at best, when interviewed, but clearly does not enjoy the interplay the way gregarious Gomer does.

Media relations is hardly the prime criteria. There's the matter of respect, fortitude, command and all the other stuff that made folks like Steve Yzerman, Jean Beliveau and Mark Messier so effective as team leaders.

Of course, if Brendan Shanahan should return — I'm not exactly betting on that, but you never know — he could effectively trump any of the other candidates.

I wonder what you, the fans, think. The polls may say that Drury has the lead, but I still believe that Gomez will get the nod. 

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