Category — 2008 NHL Playoffs

I’ve spent a lot of time recently covering the Yanks, and I’ll admit that baseball has and always will dominate this blog, but it’s time to give a shout out to those Broadway Blueshirts. It’s nice to see a team that plays in the Garden win some games.

As of April 17, the Rangers have a commanding lead over the Devils 3-1 in the first round of the 2008 NHL playoffs. If you’re that big a fan, check out this cool assortment of NHL jerseys. The Rangers have rebounded nicely from having a team earlier this decade that was truly Isiah-esque in its awfulness. (As I write this, I’ve just seen that the Knicks fired Isiah Thomas). In three straight seasons, the Rangers have managed to make the playoffs. Each year the team seems to get a little better. This year they are led by Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez (71 and 70 points respectively), and the acquisition of Jagr in 2003-2004 was a major turning point for the team. If only the Knicks had such management.

So how far can the Rangers go this year? My feeling is that they’re a good team that can win it all if they get hot enough, but Montreal, Detroit and San Jose are pretty stacked and any of these three can and should be considered heavy favorites.

I remember going to the Garden as a kid with my best friend, Jesse and seeing some classic Rangers vs. Flyers games–penalty shots, OT wins. We even went down to Philly to see the Rangers play in the old Spectrum. Man, was that place a dump. Obviously, the Rangers winning it all in ‘94 was a great moment and never having to hear those Devils and Isles fans chant “1940″ is probably like what Sawks fans today feel knowing they’ll never have to hear “1918″ again.

It seemed like in the mid-90’s, the NHL was poised to break through to the mainstream (remember those NHL games on Fox with the puck tracker that never worked). Perhaps this is no coincidence seeing as the Rangers were the last big-market team win the Stanley Cup. Since then, I think the NHL was resigned itself to growing fanbases in more middle-market cities (Columbus, Charlotte), and this has not done well for the sport’s cross-over potential. The NHL needs strong support for legacy, big-market teams as much as it needs expansion across tier-2 cities in the US. But with Montreal, Detroit and the Rangers in it this year, perhaps things will change.