The New York Rangers Versus New Jersey Devils Brings Back Memories
The New York Rangers have defeated the Washington Capitals in seven games and are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals to face their arch-nemesis, the New Jersey Devils. It reminds me of when I became a hockey fan and it is fitting that the Rangers clinched the day before Mother’s Day and will play the Devils the day after. Not only does it remind me of a great period in Rangers history but it reminds me of my mother.
I grew up in the New York City metro area. Naturally I took to the Rangers because they were, well because they were the Rangers. Growing up my family wasn’t big on hockey so I was never taught the game or watched a hockey game with my dad. Instead, it took a Rangers Stanley Cup run to get me into the sport and it had me hooked the moment I saw my first game in the 1993-94 Eastern Conference Finals. Rangers versus Devils. My dad hated hockey. He still hates hockey. Instead, I watched the games with my mother in the kitchen on a tiny television with a single antenna that had to be adjusted every five seconds with a picture that might not even be considered color today.
Before I even knew anything about hockey I knew the players from their hockey cards. You might say that I had a bit of a cardboard of addiction growing up, collecting baseball, football, basketball, and hockey cards. I learned a little about the game in grammar school playing street hockey but not much. Still, when that television came on and I saw those players take the ice for the first time in my life I knew I would love this sport. It was fast paced, hard-hitting, and elegant at the same time. It was beautiful.
My mother and I sat at the kitchen table, our eyes glued to the tiny screen. I swear, my smart phone screen might be bigger than the screen on that television. She knew nothing about hockey but had become swept up in the hype surrounding the Rangers that year. I knew very little but compared to my mother it was a mountain compared to an anthill. I recited numbers from the backs of hockey cards and thought I was the most knowledgeable hockey fan in the world. I was, so long as the world ended at my doorstep.
My mom and I watched Stephane Matteau send the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in my lifetime. We hugged and quietly cheered, careful not to wake my sleeping father and sister. My mother promised me I could stay awake and watch the Stanley Cup Finals as the Rangers skated against the Vancouver Canucks. She kept her word.
For all seven games we watched the Rangers battle the Canucks. Squinting to follow the puck which was about the size of a pinhead on that tiny screen. We shared moments of elation and moments of despair. Regardless, we shared.
When the Rangers finally won the Cup the excitement was intense. Up to that point in my life I had only seen the New York Giants win a championship, twice. However, I was younger and although I was happy I didn’t fully grasp the enormity of the situation. The Rangers winning the Cup was my first real championship moment. Rangers captain Mark Messier might have been the only person in the world with a broader smile than mine and my mothers. We stayed awake long past the game, relishing the moment. The chants of “1940”, which I had become aware of from reading the papers and watching some of the games were no longer admissible in arenas throughout the world thanks to Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Adam Graves, Steve Larmer, and crew.
In the few years after that Rangers Cup run my mother and I would occasionally watch a game together, when the one television with cable wasn’t being used by someone else. We both rooted for Brian Leetch who became our favorite player and Mike Richter who wasn’t far behind. Little did I know that those moments weren’t going to last forever.
In 1997, the last year the Rangers went to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost in five games to the Philadelphia Flyers, my mother passed away. Although she was sick, she and I would talk about the games, albeit briefly, from the newspaper. That year, the Rangers beat the Devils to advance to the Conference Finals and as happy as we were it wasn’t the same. Just under two months after the Rangers were bounced from the playoffs she passed away.
Now, fifteen years later, I am reminded of how I became a hockey fan. I am reminded of those nights watching the 1993-94 Eastern Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals on the world’s smallest television. I am reminded of my mother and those moments we shared. Now, I am a diehard Rangers fan, bleeding blue. I don’t need a hockey card to tell me the stats. I don’t have to squint to see the screen anymore. I don’t have to fiddle with an antenna. I don’t even have to get up to change a channel anymore. Things have changed but they remain the same. The New York Rangers will be facing the New Jersey Devils for the right to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. Instead of watching the games with my mother I now watch them with my wife who went from never seeing a hockey game to never wanting to miss one. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Buy New York Rangers Tickets | Buy New York Rangers ApparelCheck out what others are saying about this post...
-
[...] Check out the original source here. jQuery(document).ready(function() { var html_1 = ""; jQuery('#id_wpt_adblock_1').html(html_1); var html_2 = ""; jQuery('#id_wpt_adblock_2').html(html_2); }); © 2012 Blue Planet News var infolink_pid =311325; var infolink_wsid = 0; /* */ st_go({v:'ext',j:'1',blog:'9573894',post:'69641'}); var load_cmc = function(){linktracker_init(9573894,69641,2);}; if ( typeof addLoadEvent != 'undefined' ) addLoadEvent(load_cmc); else load_cmc(); [...]
Leave a Rant
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
One Rant to “The New York Rangers Versus New Jersey Devils Brin...”