Just for the record, the NY Post’s Larry Brooks and Brett Cyrgalis are professionals. In my 12 years of working on the Ranger beat, they have been nothing but pros, whom young reporters should watch if they want to learn the business.
And just for the record, no one if faulting Dan Boyle in taking the Ranger money two years ago. It’s not his fault that he was over the hill, it was Glen Sather’s for signing him.
So when Brooks wrote in the beginning of the season that “allowing Anton Stralman to escape as a free agent in order to sign Dan Boyle on July 1, 2014, stands as Glen Sather’s most regrettable decision of the final 10 years of the Rangers president’s tenure as general manager,” he was just being honest.
The fact is Boyle was a liability out there and his inability to quarterback the power play forced Sather to mortgage the future and acquire Keith Yandle at the deadline.
None of this is in dispute.
But Boyle, who apparently was either too proud or too arrogant to see his own diminishing returns, blamed Brooks today and tossed him out of the press scrum with this exchange courtesy of NYSD Alum Greg Wyshynski.
“I don’t want him here,” said Boyle.
“What?” Brooks said. “You know, the feeling’s mutual, man.”
“Nobody likes you. Nobody respects you. Just so you know,” said Boyle.
“OK,” said Brooks.
“At least I’m leaving here with the respect of my teammates,” said Boyle. “Instead of [expletive] someone like you, who tries to bury somebody. That’s all you do. It’s not a critique. I’m telling you I don’t want you here. I have no respect for you. I want you to get the [expletive] out.”
“I don’t care what you think,” said Brooks.
“I can tell you to get the [expletive] out if I want to!” said Boyle, his voice now raised.
“You can, but I don’t have to listen to you,” said Brooks.
“Yeah, ya do!” said Boyle. “I want him out. And that other [expletive] clown, Brett, or whatever the [expletive] his name is. Where’s he at? Everyone else is fine. I want him out. It’s my right.”
Rangers staff stepped in to calm the scene down, and suggested Boyle not speak to the media at that time.
“Can they not all stay here? I have tons of respect for some of these guys. I just don’t want him here. That should be fine,” said Boyle.
At this point, Brooks hadn’t left yet.
“Can you just [expletive] leave?!” Boyle asked again, loudly.
“If you had asked me politely, I might have,” said Brooks.
Boyle: “POLITELY? Why would I be polite with you? Are you kidding me?”
Brooks then told Boyle to “grow up,” Boyle laughed that off and Brooks walked off to another interview.
The only thing Brooks did here was his job. He is paid to be a hockey columnist and give his opinion. And because of the nature of his column, you either love him or hate him.
Boyle is obviously the latter. Maybe he should come here for his Ranger news.
But maybe Old No. 22 should consider this: He made over $10 million dollars as a Ranger and should have bit his tongue, because he’s a professional. There was no reason to call out Brooks or Cyrgalis. He should have said his piece and rode off into the sunset.
But like everything else in his Ranger tenure, he couldn’t get that right either.
The irony of this is that hockey players are generally the nicest and easiest to deal with of all the major sports. Boyle was obviously the exception here. Brooks didn’t try to “bury” anyone. Anyone who watched the Rangers for the past two seasons knows he simply told the truth.
The good news is the Dan Boyle error is over and Brooks will still be covering the Rangers and providing everyone with the truth.
Like it or not, Mr. Boyle.
Listen To The Boyle Interview Courtesy of Ashley Scharge
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