This was a great night to be at the Garden. Until around 7:45 or so.
MSG, as usual, does these things right. It was fitting to see Adam Graves enter not before passing a parade of fans and those less fortunate, a fraction of those that receive numerous contributions from him. It was great to see the old teammates from Mike Gartner to Darren Langdon. Then there was the appearance by the cast of The Sopranos. I'm one in the minority who did not watch the show, but I thought that was very cool.
The speeches were well done. There were sure to be many friendly wagers among the crowd to see at exactly what time of his speech would Mess break down. And then Graves himself did everything in his power to credit everyone around him, even singling out each of his ex-teammates that were there alongside. Al Trautwig had to feel a little slighted though. A mention of Sam, Joe and JD, but not Al? I'm sure he'll let that pass.
As for the banner raising itself, find me a dry eye as that thing was going up and Adam finally broke down. If you did, you know that person did not follow this guy's career. Even his own kid was bawling.
If you were watching on MSG, did you notice pregame how Glenn Healy got screwed out of TV time while he was being interviewed alongside Tie Domi at the Theater? Sure, Tie kept rambling a little longer than he should have, but you gotta give more than couple of minutes to these two characters. Healy's awesome on TV and personally I wanted MSG to go after him when JD was leaving for St. Louis a few years back.
Speaking of which, it was nice to see JD. Running that team in St. Louis is taking its toll for sure, but I'm rooting for them. Except for the meeting later this month.
Oh, there was a game after that? First the Rangers tease us by wearing 1994-style white jerseys for warmup, only to turn to blue for the game. Is it too much to ask the Thrashers to bring their dark jerseys for the game?
I'll be honest, don't know if it was the late start or just the snooze-fest that this game was, but I was asleep midway through the third period. I awoke to find the game in overtime and learn that Markus Naslund scored with about 10 seconds left to tie the game. The boos rained down after the second period for a 0-0 score. usually that's reserved for the Rangers trailing or having a bad period. That's the sign of the times lately with this team. They are very tough to watch. I'm surprised there were no "boring" chants, like you hear at those wrestling shows for the undercard matches.
Maybe it's good that the Rangers lost in a shootout. Maybe that will teach them not to play for it all the time. Sure they have an advantage. But to throw defensive-minded players out there in overtime against a team that's at the bottom of the league in goals against?
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