Since February 23 I have been trying to put on a good face as a Ranger fan. As a season subscriber, I still had games to go to. As a Ranger fan, there were still young men on the Rangers that I wanted to support. But when that day in February came, my commitment to this Ranger team switched off inside my head. Nothing that has transpired since  to turn it back on.

Quite amazingly, the Rangers earned a playoff spot with only two games left on their season. At that time, I predicted the Capitals would defeat the Rangers in five games. You could have knocked me over with a feather if you had told me then that the Rangers would take it to seven. Even more surprising was going up 3-1 in the series. But the final outcome shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

The same players who failed to show up and play with heart during the regular season reverted back to their true selves. As I predicted, John Tortorella would behave in some way that would bring controversy and ignominy down on this franchise. The only pleasant surprise is that Sean Avery came back  to provide the “Avery Effect”,  that is until he was benched by a man who has even less self-discipline then Avery.

So the Rangers are out of the playoffs and they have the large, unmovable contracts of their “veteran leaders”  to look forward to next season. The Rangers, by not making the second round, have  regressed. Hell, this team is worse off then in 2004. At least Sather was able to hold the Fire Sale that got us picks and prospects and hope for the future.

What hope for the future do we have now? If we can’t move deadbeats like Redden, Gomez, Naslund and Drury, we won’t be able to resign the kids we do want to keep because there’s no space under the salary cap. And, even if we manage to resign them, whose going to nuture the young talent and bring it along? John Tortorella? Jim Schoenfeld? The rebuild ended when Renney was shown the door on February 23. 

In the every cloud has a silver lining department, at least I don’t have to give Dolan anymore of my money for his overpriced playoff tickets. And, re-upping my subscription while Glen Sather is still GM of the Rangers is going to be a serious decision I’ll have to make come August. I am sure in this economy, many fans are in the same boat.

I can’t see anything happening in the off season to turn the switch back on.

Posted under New York Rangers

Based upon my friend’s eyewitness testimony, the NHL may regret its suspension of John Tortorella. In fact, if the Rangers organization deposes the three “Ranger”  fan witnesses, they may have a very good assualt/wrongful behavior suit against The Washington Capitals organization, Ted Leonsis and the NHL.

My friend was sitting right behind Schoenfeld on the glass said he heard and saw the whole thing. (See man in blue and woman in white Ranger jerseys with the Let’s Go Rangers thunderstick.) he was 5 ft away from the abusive fan.

Schoenfeld and Tortorella had requested the Caps Arena security to speak to the abusive fan. Security did speak to the fan but they did not eject him. He was left there to continue the abuse. The incident that precipitated Tortorella’s outburst was the fan spilling something on Tortorella through a large separation in the glass.

The whole back of Tortorella’s suit was wet. It prompted Tortorella’s  verbal and then physical response by throwing the water bottle at the abusive fan. The bottle bounced off the abusive man and hit a nearby woman on the arm, not the head as claimed.

The onus is clearly on the Caps and Arena Security for their failure to correct the situation permanently and eject  the fan from the building before he doused liquid on Tortorella. Sadly, there was a little boy sitting with the abusive man. Wonderful example to set for your child.

If I were Dolan, I’d file an injunction against the league tomorrow morning. I would also threaten to revoke NBC’s broadcast rights to the game if the league doesn’t temporarily reverse the decision to suspend Tortorella. I wouldn’t let NBC in the building. I believe Dolan retains all broadcast rights. He could do it. If Soupy and Bettman want to play hardball, I’d throw it right back in their faces.

Even if it means forfeiting the game, someone must put a stop to the imperious Colin Campbell and the smug Gary Bettman. They are making a laughing stock of this league, not John Tortorella and not Sean Avery.

Posted under New York Rangers

If anyone had told me last Sunday after the Rangers final game of the season that today they would have the dreaded two game lead over the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, I would have said they were balmy.

After spending an entire season watching the ups and downs of the Rangers, I have become conditioned to the disappointment and failure that is commensurate with being a Ranger fan. I watched some players phone in games, play without heart and pass off the poor play with shoulder shrugs and feeble cliches. It all culminated in the firing of  Tom Renney over which I freely admit I’m still bitter. 

For a team that started the season off so well,  just a mere week ago many wondered if the Rangers would win a playoff spot, back into one or miss entirely. I see no reason why the fans shouldn’t be suspect of this team moving forward.  After all, it’s not that the team has been playing world beating hockey. They have just played that much better then their opponents, who have little playoff experience.

Yesterday the Rangers shut out the Washington Caps in a low scoring, boring game. If played mid season, such a game would have had some fans screaming that they were being bored. But the playoffs are about winning at any cost. Whatever it takes! Boredom be damned.

The fact that the Rangers have one of the top three goaltenders in the National Hockey League doesn’t hurt. John Tortorella is no dope. He realizes that the key to the Rangers getting through this series is to shut down the Caps offense by having his team play a sound, albeit boring, defensive game. The Rangers also had to depend upon their league leading penalty kill to win this game. I don’t suppose I need to remind anyone  who espoused and taught this team  that sometimes “defense first” win games.

I keep getting text messages from my friend Scott that I “gotta believe”. As I have said many time before on this blog, I love Scott’s positive attitude and his youthful exuberance. Last year he went to the final game in Pittsburgh and was on the bus until the final buzzer.

I know he’ll chastise me for being skeptical right now. Regardless of winning the first two games of this series on the road, the Rangers still have to convince me that they will do anything it takes to win. They have to bring the same level of commitment to the rest of the games in this series as they have to the first two.

I want to believe, I really do but the Rangers must continue to show me. I was born and raised in New York City but I must have lived in Missouri in a past life.

Posted under New York Rangers

Were it up to me, I would have given Dancing Larry the first star of the game after last night’s victory against the Canadiens. Chris Drury may finally be living up to his fat pay check . Dancing Larry doesn’t need a paycheck. Larry doesn’t have a “No Trade ” clause. Last night, Larry got the Addams family intro on the scoreboard and the full TV time out to dance his heart out. The crowd paid him with a loud round of applause and that politically incorrect chant that Garden management despises.

Game in and game out, when Larry is called upon by Barrington (the Garden’s Rasta TV  camera man) to get the crowd going, Larry always obliges. Larry has put up with a lot of abuse over the years but like his predecessor, the Chief, he keeps on keeping on like the True Blue Seat Ranger fan he is. 

I first meet Larry six years ago at the Molly Wee Pub on Eight Ave. where Larry usually takes his pre-game meal.  One night we walked in and Larry was celebrating his birthday. They had a cake for him and sang. He’s a fixture there, just like he is in the Garden. When 6:15pm rolls around on game night, Larry usually high tails it over to the Garden for the pre-game warm-up.

In addition to being a full season subscriber, Larry also goes to a few away game each season. I once met him at a road game in Montreal in February of 2004.  Most all the Ranger fans at that game had congregated by the glass at the Rangers end of the rink. Messier saw the intrepid group and came over and banged his stick on the glass as a greeting. Larry was “right chuffed”,  as they say in England.

Last night, between the second and third period, I met Larry as he was waiting in line for the men’s room by 407. I grabbed him and gave him a big wet kiss on his bare noggin. He expressed his hope that the Rangers could hang on to the lead in the third period for the win.

Larry is such a positive person, loyal Ranger fan and a genuinely nice fellow. He makes me fell like a whining old farbissna for being so negative. If the Rangers do make the playoffs (only to get bounced in the first round) Larry will be there.  He’s the definition of True Blue.

Larry Goodman, here’s to you!

Posted under New York Rangers

The reason I’m a Ranger fan is because my brother Billy was a Ranger fan. When I was a child, we  used to watch the Rangers at home on WWOR Channel 9 on our old black and white set. When Bill wasn’t watching  the Rangers at home, he would watch them at the Garden with his good friend, John Keane. Hockey was not a niche sport in Woodside and Sunnyside. It was played in the streets and watched at the old Garden.

On November 1, 1959, Bill was at the Garden for the Jacques Plante face mask game. Andy Bathgate, one of tonight’s honorees put a slapshot into the face of Plante. After being stitched up, Plante refused to take the ice without the mask.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Tonight, almost 50 years later, Bill and I will witness Bathgate and Howell go the rafters and join the other Ranger legends who have had their numbers retired. Some  fans say this is long overdue. Contrary to popular opinion, there are some Ranger alumni who still deserve to be honored by the organization. 

If they retired every number that deserved to be retired, the players would have to start wearing Roman Numerals.  I therefore put it to management to create some sort Ranger Hall of Fame inside the refurbished and/or new Garden. Have a select committee of fans and alumni to hear the petitions of the fans regarding a player they think should be honored.

Surely Ratelle and Hatfield are a lock. Brad Park, Ronnie Greschner, Duguay, John Vanbiesbrouck and the Maloney Brothers should be considered.

As for the current Rangers, let’s hope history doesn’t  repeat  itself tonight in this the third and penultimate game of the season between the Maple Leafs and the Rangers. The last time these teams met was, ironically, on November 1, 2008 in Toronto. The first place Rangers had the dreaded 2 goal lead going into the third period. They imploded in the third period giving up 5 unanswered goals to the Leafs and lost the game.

It was the first time in the young season that the Rangers were blown out. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time. This game exposed all the weaknesses on this team that we have witnessed over and over again since. The Rangers have sputtered ever since and are now in a freefall.

They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Let’s hope the Rangers can get their act together long enough to win this game and avoid embarrassment on what should be a proud night in Ranger history.

Posted under New York Rangers