When I was younger, I knew I was a little different from the rest of my class because they didn’t really care for hockey. While most talked about Derek Jeter and Sammy Sosa, I tried to find anyone who knew anything about Paul Kariya or Adam Graves.
As time went on, I found that hockey is a cult following and it’s fans are as ravenous if not more ravenous than other fans out there.
Some of my best childhood memories have taken place under the roof of the Garden. Seeing Mark Messier surpass Gordie Howe for second all time in points and watching the Rangers sweep the Atlanta Thrashers.
Times have changed, and so have the faces, but that NYR crest has always been the same. I became a true diehard that lives and dies with the team when I was a junior in college.
I just had been given the news that I would no longer be able to play sports ever again at a competitive level. I said goodbye to my college lacrosse team, and then a week later was dumped by a girl who had other ideas about her future.
Times were pretty dark, and I was a 100 miles from home living in a different state. After realizing I now had nothing to do with my time, the Rangers became the mainstay of my days. They were the thing I looked forward to the most everyday and I never missed a game.
The New York Rangers made me feel like I was a part of something again. They returned some sort of normalcy to my life and no matter who left my life and who stayed, they were always there at 7pm on MSG.
Mark Messier, Adam Graves, and Brian Leetch have since been replaced, but just like life, the team moves on. Henrik Lundqvist, Dom Moore, and Dan Mats Zuccarello fill in the voids as your favorite players and you pick up right where you left off.
So, this is my way of thanking the team that’s given me so much pain, misery, but far more joy over my whole life. Still searching for Lord Stanley, but the memories this team has given me can never have a price tag placed on it.
It isn’t just a team, it’s a part of me.
Dennis Malles – Founder and Co-Writer
