R-A-N-G-E-R-S.

Thus, before the Winter Olympics interrupt yet another NHL regular season and separate any number of teammates for a solid two weeks, this logo remains the one constant for both the Slovakian forward and the Swedish goalie.

When Gaborik inked a five-year deal during the off-season, for a reported $37.5 million, New York appeared to have as much strength on its first line of offense as the last line of defense.  While skating for the Minnesota Wild in 2007, the 27 year-old forward blitzed the Rangers for a five-goal, six point game, en route to a career-high 42 goal, 83 point season.  Some observers may point to good karma, as the last blueshirt to amass as many goals or points was Jaromir Jagr, a fellow countryman,

Still, a more likely reason that Glen Sather, the team’s general manager since 2000, opened the vault was that, aside from Jagr, none of the players on his watch had scored 42 goals; in fact, Mark Messier, with 47 during the 1995-96 season, was the last Ranger to reach this plateau.

With 23 goals and 42 points, Gaborik is off to a splendid start on Broadway.  However, he is counted upon far too often, and one could only wonder where the Rangers would be without him.

Through 33 games, which have produced a 14-16-3 record, New York has tallied a mere 89 goals.  The quick math suggests that Gaborik has been involved in almost half of its scoring plays; the more frightening math is that the 6’1”, 199 wing has notched one goal for every 3.8 Ranger goals.  The disparity is so great that Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos [who has scored 18 of the Lightning’s 80 goals] is a distant second with a 1-in-4.44 ratio.

To further illustrate Gaborik’s importance, not even Wayne Gretzky’s 92-goal season in 1981-82 could compare.  The Edmonton Oilers, then coached by Sather, knocked in a whopping 417 goals, and Gretzky potted one goal for every 4.53 goals scored by his mates.

To think where New York -already in 11^th place to begin with [though just two points out of a playoff spot]- would be without Gaborik, a five-time 30-goal scorer, is unfathomable.

And, to think that Gaborik, who had hip surgery in January 2009, can never be injured again is equally insane.  Just 12 games into his Ranger career, Gaborik missed two games with a knee injury following a collision with the Coyotes’ Petr Prucha.

At the other end of the ice, there is Lundqvist, who was rewarded with a six-year, $41.25 million extension in February 2008.  Except that, unlike Gaborik, he doesn’t have the numbers to show for his efforts; Wednesday night’s 2-1 loss to the Islanders was his league-leading 13^th loss.  And, though Lundqvist finished the contest with a respectable .916 save percentage and 2.57 goals-against average, both of those numbers appear quite pedestrian when stacked against the league leaders.

Though he has yielded four goals or better on just five occasions, the opposition has had nine three-goal games against him.  The Rangers average fewer than three per game.

Losing with such frequency is new to the 27 year-old, who had amassed 142 victories over his first four seasons.  Along the way, he established a franchise record with 30 victories as a rookie in 2005-06, was nominated for the Vezina Trophy in his first three seasons, and remains the only goalie in NHL history to begin a career with four consecutive 30-win seasons.  Additionally, his stellar play in net during the 2006 Olympiad in Torino, Italy catapulted Sweden to just its second gold medal ever.

Now, all of those accolades are buried in a rollercoaster season.

“I want to make sure I do everything to help the team turn this around,” he replied after stopping 26 of 28 shots.  “As athletes, we play to win, and we are just not winning.”

Following an opening night loss to the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins, Lundqvist reeled off a six-game winning streak.  Since that point, however, he has only won five of 20 games.

It was just never like this before.

From his NHL debut, on October 8, 2005, it was evident that Lundqvist was in this league to stay.  Less than a week into his rookie season, he won his first game.  Within two weeks, Lundqvist notched the first whitewash by a Ranger freshman since John Vanbiesbrouck more than two decades earlier.

His first 30-win season eclipsed the franchise’s previous rookie high of 29, shared by Jim Henry [1941-42] and Johnny Bower [1953-54]; along the way, Lundqvist was New York’s first rookie netminder to post 20 wins since Mike Richter in 1990-91.

“The King” was born, and Ranger fans had someone to believe in.

And on and on it went.

Until now.

More than ever, the Rangers rely on Lundqvist to have a fighting chance.  Steven Valiquette, the perennial back-up was demoted to Hartford, and Chad Johnson was recalled.  But, whether or not Lundqvist’s workload is affected remains to be seen.  The next NHL game Johnson plays will be his first.

So it stands to reason that Edmonton returned the favor by hiring former Ranger coach Tom Renney last summer as associate coach under Pat Quinn.

“I knew I was being considered head coach for the team,” said Renney who came back to the New York area for the first time since leaving the Rangers, as his Oilers were down by the Islanders 3-1 at Nassau Coliseum. “The strategy wasn’t what I was looking for. That said, when [Oilers GM] Steve [Tambellini] presented me the idea, given the people who were involved, it was a pretty easy decision to make, recognizing that there may have been head coaching opportunities and those were looming, I just looked at the people involved and thought this was the right opportunity.”

To Renney, an intellectual man, this was the smart move. Although he said he has other head coaching opportunities available to him, the coach is able to be involved with an organization by slowly making it part of his culture. Add to the fact that he is very close friends with Quinn, and it’s a move that makes total sense for the egoless Renney.

As is his personality, he also holds no ill will to the Ranger organization and said he still keeps tabs on his old club. “They are part of my family and certainly, I take interest in how they are doing,” he said. “I am not consumed by it, because I have my own organization I have to help win, but I certainly keep an eye on them and how they are doing.”

Believe it or not, it’s easier for Renney to do it this way and come to the New York area visiting the Islanders, while staying away from Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers visit the Oilers on Thursday. He is still emotionally connected with the club and needs time to make Edmonton his home.

“I have to say so, because I so much enjoyed it there,” he said.  “I think I have to be immersed and embraced by my own team before I go into Madison Square Garden and kick their [butts]. I am not there yet. I have no problem trying to beat them at home in Edmonton. I have to say the fans were very supportive of me and what I was trying to do there. It would be fun to go back there at some point of time and win a game at MSG for somebody else, but right now I am still emotionally connected to that situation.”

It’s his love for the Rangers that made last Feb. 23rd so difficult. Even though he finished his Ranger tenure with a record of 164-117-46, leaving him fourth on the all-time coach’s win list for the club and since the lockout all his teams made the playoffs, something the Rangers didn’t sniff for seven seasons prior to his arrival.

And even though his replacement John Tortorella finished what Renney started last season, he did so with the additions of Nik Antropov, Sean Avery and Derek Morris. And Tortorella only could bring the Rangers to the first round, embarrassing the organization in Game 5 by throwing a water bottle at the fans sitting behind the glass at the Verizon Center in Washington.

Although those changes happened, you have to wonder if Renney could have done better.

“It’s inevitable that you think that way and change is something that’s supposed to happen to get back to where you want to be,” he said. “It started with me and that was the best place to start. Certainly I felt confident in my ability to coach and felt that they didn’t have to do that.

“But that said, subsequent changes suggest that there was more involved with the team than coaching, even beyond the conclusion of the season with free agency. I am over that and I think the body of work will be looked at as being successful, given what happened the number of years prior to that.”

It’s that class which makes Renney remembered by the fans and the media. He said that Sather told him the day he fired him he “dreaded this day, since the day he gave [Renney] the job.”  And the New York Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association awarded the erstwhile coach with the Good Guy Award last season.

Even with all of those accolades, Renney’s biggest attribute was coaching the uncoachable. He had a great relationship with notorious coach killer Jaromir Jagr and was one of few who could control Sean Avery.

“That’s certainly what you want is that [the players] like playing for you,” he said. “Now that’s not always going to be the case, but if they appreciate playing for you and like playing for you that’s what you want more than anything else.

“Part of that is that they are winning and you get a sense that you will takes through your help. I enjoyed every single guy. There’s not one guy in that organization I had a hard time with and I enjoyed every single guy.  As much as I hoped they helped them, they certainly helped me in my career.”

And if he has a regret, it has to be the Buffalo series back in the 2007 playoffs.

“That one was a bummer,” he said. “I think of that one, I think, ‘Aw gosh, we had that right on our fingertips and we let it slip away.’ It was a youthful team, but you have to quit losing before you start winning, and as much as we’d been able to do good things in the regular season, and to that point in time in the playoffs, we still weren’t quite ready for the responsibility of being complete in postseason play. And we paid the price.”

A price which eventually cost him his job two years later. Yet, Renney has moved on and has another goal now, and that’s to get the Oilers to the Stanley Cup. And guess what, he has an opponent in mind too — how about the Rangers?

“I would ok with that one,“ he smiled. “It would be fun to have home ice advantage and winning the Stanley Cup in front of the home crowd.”

Spoken like a true Edmonton Oilers coach.

“Denis Potvin may be the most remembered player in Rangers history,” said Rangers president Glen Sather. “Every game you hear his name chanted, so we feel it’s time to give him the proper recognition.”

Throughout most games at Madison Square Garden, the fans chant “Potvin Sucks” in remembrance of the hit he placed on Ulf Nilsson back in February, 1979. Although he never played for the Rangers, he is part of the lore of the team.

A former first round draft pick and captain of the Islanders, Potvin led the Isles to four straight Stanley Cups, while tormenting the Rangers under coach Herb Brooks. His play prevented the Rangers from breaking the 1940 curse, which lasted to 1994.

Potvin retired in 1988, but his name has lived on, which took pressure off many a Ranger team.

“I think it’s great,” said Ranger captain Chris Drury. “When the times are tough the fans chant “Potvin Sucks” and don’t boo the team. He’s been an MVP for us during losing streaks.”

“I never heard of Denis Potvin until I came here,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist. “He should be thankful these fans remember him.”

When reached for comment, Potvin, 55, said he is touched by the gesture, but doesn’t want to say anymore until he speaks to Sather.

“I wish they asked me first,” he said. “I don’t know if I will get an outpouring of love like Mark Messier or Adam Graves. I have to speak to Glen.”

Happy April Fools Day from the staff at NYSD.

Adam Graves gets joins the Ranger immortals tonight. (MSG Photos)

The numbers raised to the Garden rafters in the past few seasons were well deserved. No one would argue Nos. 35, 11, and 2 respectively, should not have been retired, rather there would have been a protest on 33^rd Street of Mike Richter, Mark Messier and Brian Leetch did not get their days in the sun.

But Adam Graves is a different story. What the Rangers will do tonight is honor an organizational choice, rather than an all-time immortal. They are raising No. 9 to the rafters because of Graves as a person, as much as the player.

Yet, Graves’s No. 9 deserves to hang next to his teammates for eternity, since he meant just as much to the 1994 team as the other three. In fact, it could be argued that the tough left wing was a greater part of that championship run, because to win the Stanley Cup the players other than the immortals need to step up and be counted.

Graves was always there in the front of the line.

“He was the realization of what a Ranger should be,” said Messier. “I think he’s going to be remembered as one of the great Rangers of all-time. He did everything a person could do for an organization, everything a player could do for an organization.

Maybe it came from his relationship with Messier. After signing as a free agent with the Rangers on Sep. 3, 1991, the former Oiler, who played on the “Kid Line” in Edmonton during the Stanley Cup season of 1990, first took Messier’s No. 11 on his jersey, until general manager Neil Smith made the franchise changing trade for the Hall of Fame center a month later.

Graves’s signing was unpopular at the time, as the Rangers had to relinquish young forward Troy Mallette as compensation. The left wing was considered a grinder when that move was made; never scoring more than seven goals in a season and 1990 was actually his first full year in the NHL, playing 76 games.

But with Messier as his pivot in New York, the Ontario native came into his own, scoring 26 goals that first season with 33 assists. As The Captain’s wing, he brought a power forward toughness to New York. Gone were the liberties other teams took at the Blueshirts expense, rather any late his was paid back with interest, as “Gravy” made sure other teams knew who was in charge on the ice.

So much has been written and said about Sean Avery and his antics with goalies. But before ‘The Grate One’ came to the Garden, Graves performed the same duties in front of the net. Yet, his play was clean and never crossed into rule changing territory like Avery.

“He takes everything personally when someone gets run over on the ice,” Leetch said. “No matter whom it is.”

“I like to call Adam ‘the Sheriff’ – he likes to keep the streets clean,” said former teammates and current Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe. “He just watches out for everyone. He’s pretty amazing.”

If Graves was only an enforcer, No. 9 night would have never come about. Yet, he developed that scoring touch which allowed him to hold the Rangers single season goal scoring record with 52 in 1994. (The record was broken by Jaromir Jagr in 2006). But it wasn’t just the amount of goals scored; it was the timing of them.

In 1996, Graves singlehandedly turned around the first round playoff series against the Canadiens. Down 2-0 going into Montreal, the left wing scored twice in Game 3 to give the Rangers a 2-1 win and the twice in Game 4 to tie the series, which was eventually won by the Blueshirts, 4-2.

In 1994, he had 10 goals in the Stanley Cup run and closed out the Devils with a series winning goal in the 1997 Quarterfinals.

Yet, Graves wouldn’t want those accolades mentioned, since he was such an unselfish player. Always putting the team first, he should have been named captain in 1997 after Messier left rather than Leetch, a move which cost the Rangers something on the ice. Although Leetch was a great leader, he was quiet. Graves had that commanding presence on the ice, and his unselfish play would have rubbed off on his teammates.

“There are many things Graves brings that you don’t see on the stat sheet,” Smith said. “Players like Graves are character people. They won’t score 70 in a season, but they will do anything to win.”

And that’s also off the ice. Performing many charity works, Graves had the reputation of putting the community first. For his efforts, he won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 1994 for leadership on and off the ice and the Bill Masterton Trophy in 2001 for perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.  He also was awarded the NHL Foundation Award in 2000 for his work off the ice with underprivileged children.

“He was a huge part, obviously, of winning the Stanley Cup in 1994,” Messier said. “But more importantly, the way he handled himself on the ice and the way he represented himself off the ice was everything that makes a fan proud to be cheering for the home team and the home town.”