Sure Success or Recipe for Disaster?

As the season fast approaches, I look back at this crazy summer. I mainly look at the two teams in the East that made the most noise, The Flyers and the Rangers. Both teams took the UFA opening bell by the horns and made huge upgrades, but is it going to give them success?

The New York Rangers made a big day huge by landing Scott Gomez and Chris Drury in the space of a few hours. Many in Manhattan where elated when they found out about these signings and the Islander fan inside of me cried out in dismay. While on paper these signings look phenomenal for the Rangers, will that equal up to on-ice success?

With the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan, Sean Avery, and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist already in the fold, will the chemistry work at MSG? All the tools are there, but will they get them to work? We all know the work ethic of the new comers, will that rub off on the young players and veterans, giving the Rangers a potent team that will burst into the playoffs and do some serious damage? Will the Rangers find that too much ego and too many names are now in the locker room and collapse in on themselves and drop from the playoff picture or get a first round elimination for all their hard earned money?

The Flyers are another team that made huge strides, but they started well before the UFA open season. A quick and very good upgrade the Flyboys made was getting Martin Biron to mind the net for the next year. Biron was an instant upgrade for the Flyers who finally have some stability in net. The Flyers made some extremely great moves as the summer went on and upgraded their team exponentially. Picking up Daniel Briere, Joffery Lupul, Scott Hartnell, Scottie Upshall, and Kimmo Timonen the Flyers will be a force to be reckoned with next year... or will they? In the same situation as the Rangers, the Flyers could face the very real problem of these players not gelling in their new environment. I hope against hope that does not end up happening, but it definitely has happened before. Will the Flyers ride the scoring touch of Danny B and break back into the post season or will the team continue to play down at the bottom of the East?

Both these teams face enormous mountains this season. High contracts and high expectations are placed on the players coming to these teams and are expected to provide immediate results. Will they be up to it? The season is coming quick and the answer lies in the future. Only time will tell if these moves, which look good on paper, turn into the on-ice quality that is expected.