Great Season

Rangers lost today 5-4 and the season is done. I'm not gonna be ranting throughout this post; I'm on a pretty stable emotional level right now and I'm gonna be okay.

After the post game phone calls, I was able to really get myself together. I put my Ranger jersey back on, flipped on NHL 07, and played that for a couple hours while listening to James Blunt. I'm not one to brag, but it was at that moment that I realized what a great Ranger fan I am. If I could script what a perfect Ranger fan would do after a season ending loss, it would include playing NHL 07 and listening to James Blunt with a Rangers jersey on.

I feel like today I've become an even bigger Ranger fan than I have been. I honestly didn't think it was possible. But now that we are back in the hunt for the cup every year, I'm really starting to understand everything. My dad told me after the game 5 heartbreaking loss on friday, "Now you're a true Ranger fan." He explained that now I had experienced one of the classic Rangers melt downs with only seconds remaining in an enormous game. He was right.

I'm actually really impressed with all Ranger fans throughout the playoffs. The support was unmatched throughout the league. The garden was rockin every game. The 5 minutes after the final buzzer sounded was a special 5 minutes. I didn't know how the garden would react. It was perfect. After like 20 seconds of silence the garden started going nuts for the Rangers, giving them a huge standing ovation. Throughout the handshakes, as the players consoled one another trying to pick their heads up, the fans helped with a great Lets Go Rangers chant in complete unison.

For the past 2 seasons the Rangers had adopted a great european hockey tradition: after every win on home ice the whole team gathers at center ice and salutes the crowd with their sticks. It's an amazing tradition and the fans love it. Well even after the loss today, the boys stayed on the ice and saluted the crowd one more time as the fans responded with their enormous ovation. I'm gonna try to find the video of the 5 minutes after the game, it was amazing.

We had a great year, and could not have went out with more respect. So, I'll end the post with the 2 greatest words in sports: NEXT YEAR