It was Hockey Night At The Garden Saturday, with the Rangers wearing their heritage jerseys to square off against the Habs. I don't know of too many teams more annoying than the Canadians: they have 24 championships, the Rat Pack (Gomez, Gionta, Suban and Plekanec) and they complain all the time...in French. I guess the only thing more annoying is that their fans can be found at every road game, pretending not to understand English as they cut the line in the bathroom, trying to smoke Gouloise cigarettes inside, and chanting their crappy Les Habitants support song DURING the Star Spangled Banner. Are you kidding me??
Suffice to say it was a raucous night at MSG, both in the stands and on the ice. Sean Avery made his season Garden debut and Blueshirt fans were rocking even in warmups when #16 took the ice for some paces. Plenty of signs and jerseys, faces painted, and fans enthusiastic to have one of the most popular Rangers back with the club (hate him till he's on your team, then you love what he'll do to win for you). I'm a big Avery fan because I like anyone that brings energy to the Rangers and I thought he was our most consistent player in our short playoffs last year--but overall a 3 goal campaign from a talented guy who had enough chances to net at least 8 was disappointing, and I think ultimately what left him off Tort's roster to start this season. The game result last night for Avery was probably a little underwhelming but by no means bad. I think what the Rangers need from him right now is a hard-checking, quick skater who doesn't take a lot of penalties, can control the puck without making giveaways, and throw down some fisticuffs when Prust is banged up. Even the edgy, exciting, agitating Sean Avery, which he's come to be known for, is probably not as high on the Rangers' priority list (or maybe not as high as it was prior to getting their first home win) as people make it out to be. I mean, if you couldn't get excited about that Ranger first period last night, you better have a mirror moment with your soul and find out where the leak is, cause that was some great, satisfying hockey. And 16 was an equal part of it, though rightly not the focus.
Callahan, however, was a focus. The Ranger captain sealed the game with an empty-netter, seemed to draw penalties against him almost every shift aiding and abetting the Blueshirts' strengthening PP, and came to the defense of Brandon Dubinsky who found himself on the receiving end of a questionable blindsided interference by Montreal call up Michael Blunden. Welcome to the show kid, watch out for the right hook.
The Rangers converted on the ensuing Power Play when Derek Stepan thread a pass through the crease to a waiting Erik Christensen creeping down on the back door for his first tally of the season.
I'm psyched everytime we get to use this picture. Keep it up EC! last 3 games: 1 g 3 A and a shootout score
Girardi and Del Zotto also scored and the Blueshirts were rolling. The Habs picked up their attack as expected and got themselves in position to steal the game, but as we've mentioned in games before the Intestinal Fortitude of this Ranger team kicked in and we were able to regain the upperhand when B. Rad took a one-touch drop pass from Brandon Prust and walked into an open center lane to fire a wrister past Cary Price.
Garden Renovations
It was my first game at the Garden this season, and so my first chance to check out the renovations. Overall it was pretty impressive. The main difference I noticed is that there is now no walkway ringing around the interior middle of the Garden, which in the past made it easy to walk around and meet friends and not miss out on any of the action. The new Garden forces every section into the outer corridors if you want to walk around the rink. What's good about this is that because it's a little more difficult to get around, people stay in their seats, which are now on an uninterrupted rise from the arena glass up to the 400 level--and the Garden looks fuller and is, to my attention, louder. With the Rangers winning at home now, hopefully we'll re-cultivate an intimidating barn for other teams to walk into.
ADVANTAGE: NEW GARDEN
The other noticeable difference to the average fan would the outer corridor, which is unfinished and exudes an extremely foreign feeling. Not that it can't be better when it's completed, but for now it kind of blows. The corridor isn't that much wider, and even though there are little cafe-like alcoves where fans can sit on comfy couches and eat Magnolia cupcakes and sushi and drink a $10 beer, I would trade all that for the tight fit of those Food Courts and the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, and the promise of a 3rd period Cookies n Cream sundae with chocolate sauce and a mini sugar cone garnish. But they call me an Old Soul.
ADVANTAGE: OLD GARDEN
The bathrooms seem to be more plentisome, which is a positive, but they also seemed smaller. A group of Canadian fans in Red jerseys were using the whole row of stalls and even though it was a coincidence us Ranger fans on line looked at each other as if we were in bizarro wold. The old Garden bathrooms were cavernous, coveted and intimidating and the road team fans would most often zip up their jackets to cover their jerseys and go piss in the stalls in the back before cowering back to their seats. Maybe it was just the throngs of Montreal fans in particular, but things were a little too safe for my liking.
ADVANTAGE: OLD GARDEN
The renovations will continue in December and for the next two seasons so hopefully I'll get to a few more games and continue to update the changes.
**if you have any opinions on the new look Garden leave your comments in the comment section.
Big game tonight against another Canadian team, The Winnipeg Jets. Let's go for the sweep tonight Blue!
And good luck to Mark Messier running the NYC marathon this morning. Mister New York!
Mess finished with a time of 4 hr 14 min. Back in the 80s my Dad got 3 hr 57 min...no big deal ; ) Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya (duh) set a course record at 2 h 5 min 6 sec.
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