Don't Blame Me
- Saturday’s epic shootout victory against the Caps seems to have changed the landscape of hockey in this town and perhaps beyond as well. Besides vaulting the team and the sport into the public consciousness here and apparently leaving yours truly completely speechless, it may very well, as Larry Brooks speculated the other day, be the beginning of the end of the multiple overtime playoff games that have created legends out of players like Stephan Matteau and Peter Stemkowsi, and made for long nights and mornings that none of us will ever forget. While I fervently hope that is not the case, it’s hard to argue with Brooks' idea that the league would happily sell out its tradition and its fans for a favorable TV deal.
The five days since the game has allowed it to crystallize into an instant NYC sports classic. You can be sure during the next lockout, we’ll see it replayed countless times on MSG, even though the game itself is hardly worth watching again. And when the team takes to the ice tonight against the Penguins, the bond between the players and the fans will seem as if it’s been present for years. Marek Malik is now as firmly ingrained in Rangers history as Jim Dorey, even if he too never plays another game for the team.
As for me and this blog, my original concept was, obviously, to post entries after, and only after, each game. However, this has proved to be a daunting task. Those of you who are familiar with my “full-time” blog know that I devote much time to it, and between that and my real job and family duties, I’ve failed at my original goal and find that I cannot keep up with the pace. In truth, I never imagined that the team would be winning like this, and figured I could instead go off on slightly related topics such as the threat of avian flu. So, while not abandoning the blog entirely, I will change the format, as well as the name once I think of one, and check in periodically and as often as I can. Besides, my more esteemed Ranger blogger colleagues, some of whom are listed in the links section on the right, provide ample post-game commentary.
One of those bloggers, the usually irascible Hockey Rodent, after and despite describing how he spent much of Saturday’s game tossing his TV Brick at the Blueshirts for their lackluster performance, proclaimed: Despite my skepticism, despite my cynicism, I am slowly accepting what I've been denying for a third of the season. They are for real.
Surely, the occurances on Saturday night give me a sense that the magical spirits that visited the Garden some 11 years ago are still lurking somewhere in the building. Perhaps they were waiting for something, like the sound of fans cheering, to awaken them from their long slumber. However, I’m still afraid to make a proclamation like that of the Rodent, fearing the consequences of jumping on the bandwagon too soon, like the stock market bulls just before the bubble bursts. Glad that someone else did it first….now you can’t blame it on me.
The five days since the game has allowed it to crystallize into an instant NYC sports classic. You can be sure during the next lockout, we’ll see it replayed countless times on MSG, even though the game itself is hardly worth watching again. And when the team takes to the ice tonight against the Penguins, the bond between the players and the fans will seem as if it’s been present for years. Marek Malik is now as firmly ingrained in Rangers history as Jim Dorey, even if he too never plays another game for the team.
As for me and this blog, my original concept was, obviously, to post entries after, and only after, each game. However, this has proved to be a daunting task. Those of you who are familiar with my “full-time” blog know that I devote much time to it, and between that and my real job and family duties, I’ve failed at my original goal and find that I cannot keep up with the pace. In truth, I never imagined that the team would be winning like this, and figured I could instead go off on slightly related topics such as the threat of avian flu. So, while not abandoning the blog entirely, I will change the format, as well as the name once I think of one, and check in periodically and as often as I can. Besides, my more esteemed Ranger blogger colleagues, some of whom are listed in the links section on the right, provide ample post-game commentary.
One of those bloggers, the usually irascible Hockey Rodent, after and despite describing how he spent much of Saturday’s game tossing his TV Brick at the Blueshirts for their lackluster performance, proclaimed: Despite my skepticism, despite my cynicism, I am slowly accepting what I've been denying for a third of the season. They are for real.
Surely, the occurances on Saturday night give me a sense that the magical spirits that visited the Garden some 11 years ago are still lurking somewhere in the building. Perhaps they were waiting for something, like the sound of fans cheering, to awaken them from their long slumber. However, I’m still afraid to make a proclamation like that of the Rodent, fearing the consequences of jumping on the bandwagon too soon, like the stock market bulls just before the bubble bursts. Glad that someone else did it first….now you can’t blame it on me.
posted by Alan Mann @ 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
At 12:39 PM,
Anonymous said…
Sorry to hear about the cut-back. Some of those other sites you mentioned are okay for informational purposes, but i think the dialogue on here was superior. I was kind of thinking that if the season continues as it's been going (notice how in keeping with your "don't blame me" theme, i'm choosing my words carefully here!), that it would be interesting after the season to look back on our fan-perspective as it all was unfolding (assuming the posts are accessible in some archive?). But those of us on this end of the blog certainly can respect the time-constraints you have, so good luck with the "other" blog, and let's see how long we can keep this good thing going at MSG.
11
At 2:14 PM,
Alan Mann said…
Thanks. I'm doing the best I can! :-/
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