Since GMs rarely fire themselves, head coach Tom Renney takes the fall in Broadway.
The New York Rangers currently sit 10th overall in the NHL standings, which in theory means they are better than 20 other teams.
But you'd never know it.
With two consecutive losses and only two wins in their last 12 games, something had to give and Tom Renney paid the ultimate price - his job.
One question, though - did the right guy take the hit?
Forgive me, but this is GM Glen Sather's eighth season in charge and I don't see any significant improvement in the team. In fact, you could argue the Rangers are actually moving in the opposite direction. Like so many other GMs, Sather made a pre-emptive move by firing the coach to take the focus off where it really should be - on the front office.
It would be wrong to suggest the Rangers are in shambles. They are one of five teams with 31 victories and only seven teams had more. But let's be honest, can you see this team winning the Stanley Cup. Or even one round in the playoffs…assuming they make the playoffs?
This is not a good team and no amount of great coaching can change that. Nikolai Zherdev is a fine young player, but when he is your team's leading scorer, you are in a heap of trouble - especially when he is averaging only .73 points per game. The guys who are supposed to be leading this team, based largely on their monster salaries, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, are simply not measuring up.
Which brings us back to Sather. Who in their right mind would pay Gomez an average of $7.8 million a season for five years and Drury an average of $6.8 million for four years - and do we even have to bring up the fact underachieving defenceman Wade Redden was awarded $32.8 million for the five seasons - other than Sather?
And let's not even get into the signing of Markus Naslund, who has been OK, but whose best-before date has long since passed. Once a star in the league, Naslund is now a secondary player riding it out. He's receiving an average of $4 million a season for two years.
Now I understand there was a market for both Gomez and Drury and that certainly went a long way toward driving up the price for both, but at the end of the day they are second-liners being paid as first-liners. And that is a deadly combination.
Gomez, a shifty centre and solid playmaker who helped the New Jersey Devils win two Stanley Cups, has never produced a 35-goal or 90-point season. Drury, who won a Cup with Colorado in 2001, is also a fine player, but he has scored more than 30 goals just once in his nine-year career and has never produced 70 points in a season. Gomez has 12 goals this season and Drury has 15. Redden has two goals and 20 points and is minus-11. Yikes!
So what would make Sather think these two guys would light it up on Broadway.
Perhaps the thinking was getting a couple of winners would ignite a winning atmosphere in the dressing room, but that has not happened. Rather, it could be argued if the Rangers didn't have a world-class goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist, they wouldn't stand a chance at making the playoffs. Good goaltending, as you must know, can cover up a lot of mistakes.
But not the mistakes of the manager. Those mistakes will continue to glow and given the length of the contracts Sather has awarded to players unable to lead this team, does anybody see this thing turning a corner in the near future? Not me.
This is not to suggest the Rangers should tie the can to the GM. That is for others to decide, not me. But somebody above Sather must certainly take a long, hard look at the direction this team is going and start asking questions.
The first question must be: What the hell is the plan?
The Rangers drafting under Sather has not been spectacular and his acquisitions through the free agent market leave plenty to be desired. So where will this team be a year from now? Two years from now?
If I am James Dolan, the president and chief executive officer of the Rangers and Madison Square Garden, I have to ask myself if I have left the right guy in charge?
I don't know how he could possible answer yes to that question.