By C.J. Sullivan VS. Dave Hollander

SULLIVAN: This is the year of the Rangers. New York City is in desperate need of a championship. The year 2000 is the last time Gotham had a champion and we as a metropolis are long overdue. Those wild and crazy Eastern Europeans who play for the Rangers are just the guys to bring Lord Stanley’s Cup back where it belongs.

Hollander, and all other non-believers, listen up. This team of teams is star-kissed this year. All five teams that had Rangers on them in Turin made it to the medal round. Winners win. When the Olympic break ends and the last third of the season opens on March 2, the Rangers will be ready.

They open on March 2 in Philly—where this season began with a Ranger win—in first place by three points. The last time that happened for the Rangers was in 1996, 10 long years ago. Joe Torre had not even won one game as a Yankee manager the last time the Rangers ruled the roost in the East.

These last 24 games, the Rangers are going to come out smoking. They have a secret, little-used weapon in Marek Mali. I consider him the Harlem Globetrotter of the NHL. Never mind that they have only allowed 142 goals—the lowest since 1971, when Eddie Giacomin ruled the Ranger net without a face mask. Henrik Lundqvist is our new Giacomin. This is what the Rangers needed to fit the last piece of the puzzle into place: a goalie to stop the bleeding.

Jaromir Jagr leads the league in scoring and will win the title. He will be this decade’s Mark Messier and bring glory back to that pit the Garden has become. The Rangers will sip champagne out of that cup in June.

HOLLANDER: Picked to finish 30th in the NHL by Sports Illustrated (the most uninspiring sports publication on the planet—and that’s saying something) this year, the Blue Shirts have certainly soared past anyone’s expectations. But let me caution you on a few points lest this irrational exuberance gets the best of you. 

The Rangers—specifically Jagr and his fellow Czech, rookie teammate Petr “Mighty Mouse” Prucha have been aided perhaps more than any other team in the NHL by rule changes. Jagr’s career and his disposition were in the toilet before he got to New York this year. 

In the new NHL, his finesse game is flourishing with impunity. The playoffs will offer a much rougher brand of hockey. Jagr and Prucha may not fare so well under those conditions. Dinosaur-hockey thug Darius Kasparitus may intimidate Ranger foes in the regular season, but come post-season, there will be a bounty on his head. 

The new league rules also emphasize more divisional play. Detroit, Carolina and Dallas are still the premier NHL teams. Before you start invoking Messier, you better know a little bit more about all 16 teams that may comprise the NHL’s second season. 

The team I see sneaking up on the Stanley Cup plays just across the Hudson: the New Jersey Devils. No team has been more negatively affected by the new rules than the trapping, defensive Devils, and no goalie has been more negatively affected by the decreased goalie area than the Devils’ goalkeeper, Martin Brodeur. One of Brodeur’s key strength’s was the way he came so often left the net, aggressively roaming and defending his goal like a lion protecting his den. After a slow start, the Devils and Brodeur have adjusted, winning 14 of their last 19 heading into the Olympic break. 

Playoff hockey can be all about riding a hot goaltender. Lundqvist has had an extraordinary rookie season thus far, but I’d put my money on Brodeur, a man with three of Lord Stanley’s silver plates already on his resume and who is getting increasingly more adept at this “new” NHL.

SULLIVAN: Those McHockey clubs of Carolina and Dallas are the disgrace of hockey. Hockey below the Mason-Dixie line? Pure heresy. These fair-weather teams are the downfall of the NHL. Look, I could get all WFAN sports-talk on you, or I could lead with my gut and heart—the two organs that led to my getting into sports in the first place.

The NHL needs the Rangers, just as they need the Red Wings, Bruins, Canadiens, Maple Leafs—and whatever happened to the Chicago Blackhawks? (When was the last time you ever even thought of that team?) Lord knows, the original six teams have grown, and it’s that expansion that’s ruined hockey.

So that is my argument. The Rangers will win the Stanley Cup because the NHL needs them to win it more than they need to win it. 

HOLLANDER: Wow, that’s a strong argument. Where did you come up with that clever line of reasoning, the Meathead School of Forensic Debate? All right, C.J., it’s time to get your head out of your butt and your hand out of your Hanes. The NHL long ago moved into modernity, south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Mississippi. Ever heard of the Tampa Bay Lightning? They’re the defending Stanley Cup champions. Wait, there’s more: Colorado (2001 Champions), Dallas (1999 Champions, 2000 Finalist), Anaheim (2003 Finalist), Carolina (2002 Finalist). I could go on. 

I don’t expect you to get all WFAN on me, but how about bringing just a little today into the discussion. Your wistfulness for the original six smells like a groin cup after the third period. 

The NHL doesn’t need the Rangers to win. If the re-tooled league can survive Janet Jones pulling a Sharon Stone in Casino on The Great One, then it’s a lot stronger than many hysterical sports writers have suggested. The NHL offered, end to end, the most compelling competition in the Winter Olympics and is building momentum as it heads toward its playoffs. This league is poised to get back on page one of  America’s sports sections. 

It’s nice to see hockey back. And, yes, this Rangers team has been a real treat. Let’s hope they go all the way. But, wherever they’re going, let’s just enjoy it, OK? These days, the fact that anything good is happening in the Garden is a small miracle, indeed. 

WARNING: In future endeavors, C.J., both your doctor and I advise you not to lead with your weakened, carotid heart or your distended, McNugget-filled gut. It’s an approach to life that will do neither you or the Rangers any good.