THE GERARD GALLANT MYSTERY: The Maven is not sure about You, but I still can't figure out why Chris Drury ever fired Gerard Gallant. I liked the guy as player, as coach and as an individual. I bring him up now because Double G has signed on in the KHL – believe it or not –  with the Kunlun team in China which plays in the K. (Thank You, Jim Cerny of Forever Blueshirts.)

Gallant was Drury's first coaching hire -- a distinct improvement over David Quinn and  hardly fire-able. He finished the 2022-23 season with a 47-22-23 record. It wasn't Gallant's fault that the Devils outed the Blueshirts in the opening round. New York got rotten goaltending from Iggy Shesterkin.

So, when all's said and done you have to figure that Drury fired Gallant because Poor Gerard couldn't play goal. (For that matter, neither could Shesty when it counted.)

BLAKE WHEELER RETIRES: Okay, raise your hands, Rangers fans. Show The Maven how many of you remember Wheeler the Ranger? Hmmmm; not too many and for good reason. Drury thought he was importing a live one but the fact is that the onetime wonderful Winnipeg Jet delivered 21 measly points (9-12) in 54 games when an injury finished his regular season. (His one playoff game was negligible.) Forgetting about the career-ending injury, Wheeler's lone season on Seventh could best be described as east of the sun and west of the moon on a cloudy day.

A  BET THAT THE MAVEN SHOULD MAKE: When The In-And-Out defenseman K'Andre Miller was dealt to Carolina, I hailed the move as the Blueshirts' addition-by-subtraction. Face it,, K-Man failed to live up to his New York notices and that was that. Now my buddy Sean McCaffrey of Blue Collar Blue Shirts fame writes, "I predict that Miller will have a better career in Carolina than Slava Gavrikov has in New York." To that assertion I'm saying not a chance that K'Andre will do any better than he did as  a Blueshirt because it just ain't in him. The bet is made!

A NEAT RICK MIDDLETON STORY: You may recall that the Rick Middleton to Boston for Ken Hodge was one of the worst deals in Rangers history.  And everyone who was around at the time acknowledges that Middleton emerged as one of the best all-time Bruins. Now, pal Larry Hirsch recalls an aspect of Middleton I never knew.

"I was announcing the Sled Hockey event at the 2000 Winter Para-Olympic Games in 

Salt Lake City and guess who was the head coach of Team USA but Rick Middleton. Not only that but he coached the underdog American team to a Gold Medal. Mind you, our sled hockey team was only a few years old so the win had a distinct feel like it was 1980 all over again.

"I've done a lot of sports during my long career – including Devils radio – but that Sled Hockey win was one of the greatest nights of my pro life. Rick – a great guy – did a terrific coaching job and the players were AMAZING!"

The Eminent Doctor Dionisio Has A Cure For The Rangers Not that I blame them, but the Blueshirts talk optimistically about a revival because that's what they're supposed to do but we – feet firmly on the ground – take their "talkin' the talk" with two grains of salt and a glass of Ovaltine.

ADVICE FOR CHRIS DRURY: Mark Linde, the distinguished member of The Maven's Roundtable, keeps telling me that, "Good GM's build good rosters and good rosters make coaches look awfully good. With that in mind, the real Rangers question is whether Drury will find a way to add some real, competitive talent to the Blueshirts roster.

"Let's face it, his moves over the past few years have been awful and it has the organization in a less than desirable position. From here on in, we'll see if he can turn the tide."

ADVICE FOR MIKE SULLIVAN: I'm not interested in why the new Ranger coach's last three seasons in Pittsburgh were an abject failure. He's the here and now guy in New York and the hope is that he has the kind of success Paul Maurice is enjoying in Florida.

And, by the way, it wouldn't hurt Sully if he memorized Maurice's words about what makes Paul tick. Here's how Maurice explains it:

"If you walk into the room and you just tell the truth -- whether they want to hear it or not, but it's the truth over time the players will look back and say what that coach told me was the truth. A player respects that.

"I work hard at trying to find the truth every day and then just telling it as simply as I  can – with the occasional joke slipped in."

It would be a fine idea for Sullivan to digest those words – AND JUST DO IT, MAN, DO IT!