After last night's game against the Flyers, during which Gaborik caught a beatdown from caveman and noted heavyweight Daniel Carcillo, there is no room subtlety.
HEY RANGERS ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK!?!?!?!11!>?!!>!
Marian Gaborik. Best player on the team. By a longshot. Without him, they're a draft lottery contender, no question. So, naturally, when he's getting beat up, you do what anyone would do.
You watch!
How can you watch Philly's most notorious goon (and this is a Philly team with like, four of them) beat up Marian Gaborik (the best player on the team, in case you forgot)? If Gabby gets injured in a fight, the season's more or less over. Unfortunately for us fans, Hank cannot score goals, he can only prevent them. Without Gabby no one will score goals except Ryan Callahan, sometimes, and Vinny Prospal, four months ago. This kind of thinking would seem to dictate that you might want to jump on in there and break up a fight that Gabby is in, especially when he is losing it so badly! Well think again, because the guys on the ice were happier watching it all go down than actually doing something.
The whole episode speaks to a larger problem with this squad. They don't respect the sweater. What happened when no one stepped in last night was that the team and its fans were embarassed. There's a tradition involved here. Sure, the Rangers have only won four cups, but they're a historic team. Wearing a Rangers jersey is not like wearing a Thrashers jersey, or a Stars jersey. Few players on this team seem willing to either stand up for that tradition or expand on it. Many of these guys are collecting a paycheck. Before last night, I would be pretty reluctant to write that a lot of the Rangers don't really care how the team fares, or about what the jersey means. But now, it's pretty clear that they don't. Dan Girardi and the rest of the guys on the ice didn't think they had to step in. The first problem, there, is that they had to think about it. That kind of back up should be instinctive. Secondly, it's pretty instructive on how they see the team. The leading scorer, noted for being an injury prone player, is getting his ass handed to him by Carcillo, who's an animal. What the hell would make you think you don't need to do anything?
And now the guys who were out there feel bad they didn't do anything, feel like they should've stepped in. Seriously? I feel bad that I care so much about a team that doesn't really seem to care at all. Basically, in closing, ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK RANGERS?!?!!?!?!/1 PROTECT MARIAN GABORIK.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Blues v. Blueshirts Road Trip
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to take a Rangers road trip to St. Louis, to visit my good friend Taylor and watch my good friends the Rangers play some hockey.
Even though the Rangers disappointed, turning in a lackluster effort to give up a 4-1 loss, it was an excellent evening. The Scottrade Center, where the Blues play, is a great place to watch a game. The fans are knowledgable, Jersey-clad, and they pack the arena. I wouldn't be surprised if the game was sold out. In my 23 years, the only other Rangers road games I've seen have been in New Jersey, including one notable Rangers win in early 2008 that my friends and I celebrated by instigating a drunken, prolonged brawl with some middle-aged Devils fans in the hallways of the Prudential Center after the game. Classy, I know!
But Blues fans are a very, very different bunch from the cave-dwelling subhumans that follow Marty Donuts and his pals out in Newark. Our seats were awesome, probably five rows behind the glass. Even in the lower bowl, almost everyone was in Blues gear. Maybe there aren't as many corporate seats at ice level at the Scottrade Center, but there was no Silence of the Suits in the good seats, a phenomenon that, unfortunately, has spread to the Garden. There were some scattered Rangers colors in the crowd as well, including one fella in a Richter jersey who left when the Rangers started losing. Stay for the whole game and take your lumps when they lose, amigo! I opted for my Shanahan home jersey (a peace offering to the home team, or a sign of disrespect? I figured I'd let the locals decide). We took our seats and began guzzling beer, so that if Rangers Road Brawl Round II did go down, at least it wouldn't hurt until the next morning.
Blues fans are a solid, solid bunch though. We were invited to watch the game in a sky box by a friend of a friend, a fan of the home team, no less, who was having a birthday party up in the rafters. I'll say this: If my friends and I were having a party in a skybox at the Garden (assuming one of the afformentioned friends had won the lottery or recently come into a vast inheritance), and someone we didnt know arrived wearing the colors of the opposing team, I doubt the first words out of our mouths would be "Hey, want a beer?" But these Blues people, they have real class. They welcomed us into their skybox with firm midwestern handshakes, gave us many Bud Lights (and pretzels!), and pretty much just wanted to bro down. Even though the Rangers lost a totally winnable game, it was a great night.
The Rangers got pushed around all night, giving up four goals including one empty netter. In my opinion, the jury is still out on Chad Johnson. My intuition is that he won't last. As for the rest of them, I think we've all learned to temper our expectations for this bunch.
Even though the Rangers disappointed, turning in a lackluster effort to give up a 4-1 loss, it was an excellent evening. The Scottrade Center, where the Blues play, is a great place to watch a game. The fans are knowledgable, Jersey-clad, and they pack the arena. I wouldn't be surprised if the game was sold out. In my 23 years, the only other Rangers road games I've seen have been in New Jersey, including one notable Rangers win in early 2008 that my friends and I celebrated by instigating a drunken, prolonged brawl with some middle-aged Devils fans in the hallways of the Prudential Center after the game. Classy, I know!
But Blues fans are a very, very different bunch from the cave-dwelling subhumans that follow Marty Donuts and his pals out in Newark. Our seats were awesome, probably five rows behind the glass. Even in the lower bowl, almost everyone was in Blues gear. Maybe there aren't as many corporate seats at ice level at the Scottrade Center, but there was no Silence of the Suits in the good seats, a phenomenon that, unfortunately, has spread to the Garden. There were some scattered Rangers colors in the crowd as well, including one fella in a Richter jersey who left when the Rangers started losing. Stay for the whole game and take your lumps when they lose, amigo! I opted for my Shanahan home jersey (a peace offering to the home team, or a sign of disrespect? I figured I'd let the locals decide). We took our seats and began guzzling beer, so that if Rangers Road Brawl Round II did go down, at least it wouldn't hurt until the next morning.
Blues fans are a solid, solid bunch though. We were invited to watch the game in a sky box by a friend of a friend, a fan of the home team, no less, who was having a birthday party up in the rafters. I'll say this: If my friends and I were having a party in a skybox at the Garden (assuming one of the afformentioned friends had won the lottery or recently come into a vast inheritance), and someone we didnt know arrived wearing the colors of the opposing team, I doubt the first words out of our mouths would be "Hey, want a beer?" But these Blues people, they have real class. They welcomed us into their skybox with firm midwestern handshakes, gave us many Bud Lights (and pretzels!), and pretty much just wanted to bro down. Even though the Rangers lost a totally winnable game, it was a great night.
The Rangers got pushed around all night, giving up four goals including one empty netter. In my opinion, the jury is still out on Chad Johnson. My intuition is that he won't last. As for the rest of them, I think we've all learned to temper our expectations for this bunch.
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