Brian Leetch: Pride of the Rangers

The main press box for Rangers games at Madison Square Garden is in the lower bowl, behind one of the goals. It is here where the perfect imagery can be found to illustrate the magical play of Brian Leetch, who enters the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday.

In this press box sit men and women, some who have been to thousands of games, some perhaps new to the hockey beat. Either way, it can often be a jaded lot. But when Leetch plied his craft as a defenseman for the Rangers from 1988 until 2004, there were countless moments when his artistry made those four rows of tables one of the grandest places to be in sports.

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Whether the kid from Connecticut was skating towards your end of the rink or just gathering speed while sailing away from you, a Brian Leetch end-to-end rush was a treat. And every time he crossed the first blue line, then the red, then the second blue, most of those reporters could not defy gravity. Subtly, their hind quarters left their seats just like the 18,000 in the barn.

Leetch had that kind of lifting effect on New York. He is being inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday because he had every gift imaginable and never took them for granted.

Vision: His 80 assists in 80 games in 1991-92 -- along with 22 goals -- made him the NHL's last defenseman to score 100 points in a season. We may have to wait a long time before we see another one.

Hands: Five seasons of 20 or more goals. Don't think defensemen can be regarded as finishers? Watch the biggest goal of his career -- in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final against Vancouver.

By the sum of his career, Brian Leetch is the greatest New York Ranger of all time. Finesse and Power: Like all the great defensemen in NHL history, Leetch could beat you by playing physically and by dancing around you.

Leadership: While Mark Messier will always be known as The Captain at Madison Square Garden, Leetch's character and leadership ability were strong enough to be Messier's ideal deputy.

And then there were his remarkable pair of wheels, as we say in hockey, which enabled Leetch to make those end-to-end rushes or help shut down the best forwards of his generation.

He put everything together with work ethic and an intense determination to improve each season. Rangers staffers are quick to tell tales of how much Leetch demanded of himself, how much extra time at the rink he put in to maximize those enormous talents.

By putting it all together, Leetch won the Calder Trophy in 1988-89, the Norris Trophy in 1991-92 and 1996-97 and the Conn Smythe Award in 1994 and played in 10 NHL All-Star games.

By his actions as the consummate team player, Leetch earned a Stanley Cup ring in 1994, a gold medal with Team USA at the World Cup in 1996 and a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics.

By the sum of his career, Brian Leetch is the greatest New York Ranger of all time.

In the final stanza, he became cherished not just as an all-world player but as a citizen of New York. He dedicated himself to local charities and became one of New York sports' most visible athletes after September 11, 2001, when he lost a dear friend in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Maybe New York embraced him so much because he was such a decent fellow. He loved going to concerts, shows and sporting events around the city and never played the role of a big-timer. When the old Yankee Stadium hosted its final MLB All-Star Game in 2008, Leetch and his buddies could be found wearing jeans and Yankees caps, sitting all the way down by the right field foul pole. You wouldn't have known he was a New York sports icon if it wasn't for his grace in signing hundreds of autographs from the first inning through the 15th.

Another testament to Leetch's class as a player and a man is that even New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders fans could not muster up a healthy hatred for the redhead. As Devils GM Lou Lamoriello said the other day about the one-month treat of having Leetch on his side at the 1996 World Cup, "Brian haunted me before that tournament, and he haunted me after."

Supporters of the Rangers' biggest rivals can now rest easily, for Brian Leetch has made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first season of eligibility.