Greatest hockey game . . . ever!
Vinnie Antonelli, The Badger, and I began our road trip pleasantly enough, after picking up The Badger at his office in Princeton. After a short drive, we soon saw the skyline of The City That Never Sleeps. Being a wiseass, I remarked, “It must be smoggy, because I can’t see the Twin Towers.” Vinnie instantly replied, “Damn man, you are going to hell.” He’s probably right.
Hell came early in the form of The Lincoln Tunnel. First of all, who has the gall to charge six frakkin’ dollars to use a dirty, disgusting tunnel? Secondly, who would pay six dollars to breathe tunnel fumes after sitting in traffic for a month? Unfortunately, we did. When we made it to the other side of the river Madison Square Garden was just a few blocks away. Vinnie parked in a garage – and had to use a frakkin’ credit card when we left – and we walked to the Garden.
Say what you want about the Rangers, but Madison Square Garden is a terrific place to watch a hockey game. The arena is not clustered at all, and the fans are deafening; unlike a certain Philadelphia “Center” I know. We arrived in time to see the pre-game skate, and when The Badger pointed out that Jaromir Jagr was not on the ice, I felt sick to my stomach. Luckily, Jags did play last night, so I didn’t have to shoot up the bench.
The game began, and immediately a fan started whistling an unknown tune. When he stopped, every fan in attendance screamed “Potvin sucks!” The three of us started laughing, and Vinnie yelled, “It was 1978! Let it go!” As for the game itself, it was a barn-burner. Down 2-1 early, the Rangers came back to tie the game in the third period. After a scoreless overtime, the shootout – easily the best innovation in the NHL - began.
Soon, the Blueshirts were up 2-1 in the shootout, and the Flyers’ last chance was Michael Handzus. He skated in on Weekes, who stopped the Slovak cold. Rangers win! Rangers win! The win assured the Rangers a playoff spot, and kept the team atop the Atlantic Division.
We stopped by an Irish Pub on 34th Street and had a few glasses of Guinness with other Rangers fans. To his credit, The Badger cheered for the Flyers the entire night, but agreed that Weekes played very well. I submitted that Esche played well, too. After an hour or so of fabulous babe watching – The Badger’s trademark pickup line, “Hi, Bruce Wayne.” wasn’t effective on the NYC broads - we packed it up for the ride home. I am still not sure how much Vinnie paid for the parking, but since he used his credit card, I assumed it was ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love that town, but living there is financial suicide.
I don’t know how The Man does it.
HAHAHA! Bruce Wayne! That's great.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to see your wife in white with a halo!
ReplyDeleteLiving in New York....
ReplyDeletemy first apartment cost me 63% of my salary and you probably got charged over $30 to park.
GOP - The Badger is my next SYLG profile. Vinnie was the first.
ReplyDeleteLin - Eh, she puts up with a lot, but she gets a lot back, too.
TM - Absolutely brutal!!! And, yes, I think it was over $30. Vinnie, care to expound?
Grrrrr.....frakin' overtime, bs....friggin' Rangers...grrrrr....
ReplyDeleteOh yeah....there is this new invention kind of right at the garden...it is called a train. Friggin' Flyers....don't get me started. Maybe it was the beautiful television coverage by OLN, but the Flyers looked a bit sluggish. I call it, "it looks like they are skating in sand."
W.E. - The tab for parking was approximatley 63% of the net worth of my car. The guy behind the glass looked like Howie Mandell.. and I was half tempted to tell him "no deal" and let him keep the keys.
ReplyDeleteSpot on about NYC. great town with great bars. on a scale of 1 to 10, the wings were a 10. There's something about checking out the women in a bar when you know that they are all carrying mace and can take you down if they had to. Who doesn't like women with power?
MSG - great stadium, the loudest game I've ever been to. I've been to 3 flyers games in Philly in the last 3 months, and combined they don't compare to the noise in MSG. Plus there's no "kissing cam" - who wants to see THAT, it's a freakin hockey game?!
Hands down the best game I've ever seen, not counting the x-men. still kinda curious that Jagr doesn't see a need to practice with the rest of the team, kinda like Allen Iverson, no?
I liked how at the end of the game, the entire rangers team skated to center ice and raised their sticks to thank the fans. A class act from a class organ-I-zation.
1. "Zus didn't get stoned cold. He beat Weekes and was stopped by the post. . . damn affirmative action post.
ReplyDelete2. Who would pay $6 for the tunnel. When they blowing up the bridges, you'd be surprised how fast people start getting out a $10 and yell "keep the change! I'm outta here!"
3. Weekes and Esche both played well. Meanwhile, closer to home, you should be checking on your goalies.
DL - except for an occasional (and in the case of forsberg, a much-hoped for) injury, it's all over but the cryin'. Not much for the captain to do but go down with the ship!
ReplyDeleteRT - Train Schmain! The FLyers were sluggish, but to be fair, only Jagr's line looked good.
ReplyDeleteVinnie - 1. Absolutely brutal!
2. Wings were great. Chicks were better.
3. Agreed on all counts. The Wachovia Center sucks compared to MSG.
4. Fabulous game, and Jagr missing warm-ups was lame.
5. Agreed. Classy move. And don't apologize: you were really on that night. I never laughed so hard in my life!
Deathlok - 1. He was stoned. Get over it.
2. Tunnel didn't look too sturdy anyway.
3. They were great. Vokoun? Not so much.