Longtime TheNYRBlog reader Rusty (left) sent me this photo and recap of his experience during the Rangers 8-2 drubbing of the Oilers on Sunday…
What a great Sunday. A one-sided victory and I was selected to be the season subscriber of the game. In addition to getting your name and picture up on the big scoreboard, it also gives you the opportunity to have a picture taken at center ice, usually after the game.
Since there was a quick turnover to an evening Knicks game, the picture had to be taken before the game. So I wangled two extra tickets so that I could take the photo with my brother, my son and my grandson representing three generations of Rangers fans. The picture session was great but only lasted about a minute.
What makes this a great story is that in order to take the photo, we were taken into the Garden before it was open to the public and brought in at ice level, where we encountered a large numbers of the Rangers in the hall in shorts or sweats, engaged in a pre game warmup involving a volleyball that seemed partially deflated so it wouldn’t be so lively.
We walked by quietly so as not to bother them (although I did say “go get em today , guys”) but I was easily able to ID Boyle, Cally, Duby, Prust , Boogey, Girardi, Staal and Del Zotto. Further down the hall we passed Artie Anisimov by himself, doing some pliometric stretching and skating drills.
After the picture, we wandered back down the hall, and althouth we were asked to stay back, we were allowed to watch. At the end of the warm up was a dodge ball game. As each guy was hit, he trotted towards us and turned down the tunnel towards the locker room to dress. The last man standing was Brian Boyle, who thrust his hand up into the air and said ‘I told You.’ As he trotted towards us, we gave him a hand and he pointed at my 4-year-old grandson decked out in his Ranger jersey and said ‘I love you’ and then pointed again and repeated it.
What a great day and what a great guy. It’s fitting that he got the game winning goal!
Rusty
…awesome stuff Rusty. They should have you and your family on the ice before every home game. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
…dodgeball? Really? Wonder if it was telecast on “The Ocho”?
…i love posting reader experiences as I think they add so much to the blog, so please, if you have photos, video or a recap of anything Ranger related please continue to e-mail them to [email protected].
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