The Rangers should be America's team this season.

Or maybe more than that.

	Mike Richter's perseverance through injury is one reason to adopt the Rangers.

Nothing that happened in Manhattan last year makes the men wearing the Statue of Liberty torch on their third-jersey chests more noble than, say, the Columbus Bluejackets. The Stanley Cup can't do anything to change the past or dilute tragedy.

To even pretend that it could? That would be ridiculous.

But a second New York Stanley Cup in 63 years at least would be a nice story, coming after the Rangers stepped back at least a bit from their discredited blank-check approach and attempted to seek a balance under the Glen Sather regime.

The Rangers finally closed in on that one-year agreement with Mark Messier, who has gone from hair-flying-in-the-wind days on his motorcycle to the shaved-head look. Messier has the potential to be the veteran you're rooting for. He has held the Cup aloft before, of course, both with Edmonton (with and without Wayne Gretzky), and with the Rangers. Clearly, he has become injury-prone and has regressed far more than Ray Bourque had in his twilight, and he has held on too long.

But if he's holding on, seeing the Cup in his grasp would be an appropriate ending.

Mike Richter's return was a bit of a surprise, but there's not a nicer guy in hockey. His work ethic in attempting to recover from the series of knee injuries has been a praiseworthy exercise in perseverance, and he still has a Cup run in him -- if he's healthy and gets some help.

In a multinational city, in which every office building is a diverse workplace on many levels, the Rangers already were one of the multinational teams in the league before they signed Lithuanian Darius Kasparaitis and Czech Bobby Holik during the offseason. Yes, the NHL frowned at some provisions of the contracts, and the money involved (especially the signing bonuses) didn't thrill the league office and other owners. But after some balking, the contracts have been approved, as they should have been.

And the additions of the pesky defenseman and two-way center will help further nudge the Rangers back to playoff-field respectability, and -- in combination with the other moves -- perhaps even further.

There were two big surprises involving Kasparaitis' stay with the Colorado Avalanche after he was traded at the deadline last March.

	Holik

	Kasparaitis

One, after a rough and then tentative start with the Avalanche, he found a balance between reckless abandon and uncharacteristic caution. In the past, his cheap-shot play often was counterproductive and rankled opponents as much as his participation on Russian national teams bugs many of his countrymen. (Let's put it this way: The Lithuanian members of the 1988 USSR basketball team that won the Olympic gold medal, then proudly represented Lithuania after the Baltic nation regained its independence in 1990, would whistle him for gross misconduct.) But Bryan Trottier, standing behind the Colorado bench, noticed Kasparaitis' adaptability.

Perhaps even a bigger surprise was that Colorado didn't re-sign him. Despite Kasparaitis' preference to return to the East for personal reasons, if the Avalanche had been aggressive, he would have been won over. Mark this down also: At some point in the future, the spin-doctoring will be that Kasparaitis hadn't fit in what the Avalanche proudly proclaim as a family atmosphere. As convivial as the Colorado "room" and organization can be, though, it's not extraordinary. When he has to be ruthless, such as trading Adam Deadmarsh when his new-born twins still are in intensive care, Pierre Lacroix can be a cold-hearted businessman.

There are some cynics out there -- and we've heard from them -- who believe that Holik has been a solid, but over-hyped player whose style uniquely meshed with the Devils. That sentiment is not without an element of justification, but it also seems to downplay the fact that the Devils' approach fluctuated, as did their fortunes, and that he has been an effective two-way force through it all. The problem, of course, is that in the long run his skills can be a bit superfluous with anything but a quality team. And if the Rangers struggle, he will be under pressure to be more productive.

But Bryan Trottier, one of the best two-way centers of all time, albeit with considerable more offensive flourish (especially with Mike Bossy on his wing), and his staff, will be able to get the most out of Holik.

The Trottier staff -- significantly, the Rangers also have added Jim Schoenfeld, whose fire can be a counterpoint to the stoic Trottier's thoughtful reserve -- also should be able to figure out that playing Brian Leetch too much is counterproductive. The challenge will be to come up with a cohesive mix of the new defensive corps -- and Tom Poti still qualifies as new.

Finally, a Trottier success behind the bench would be a heartening endorsement for a former superstar working hard to re-educate himself as a coach. When he joined Colorado, he wasn't ready to be an NHL head coach. He stood next to a man, Bob Hartley, who never had played above Junior A, and was a good soldier. He immersed himself in the job, studying and working with the young players. He remade himself. There's no telling how he will do in the short-term tenure world of NHL coaching, where four losses in a row can lead to "over-his-head" judgments and mean that a coach doesn't have a fair chance.

But America's team -- and maybe more -- has a chance.

Terry Frei is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. His book, "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming," will be published by Simon and Schuster in December. It can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com.