The hardwatching staff has been torn throughout the Eastern Conference semifinals between the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers – partly because we really like the Bruins, partly because the Original Six Rangers were our boyhood team.
We would trundle down to the old Madison Square Garden a couple of times a month and buy $2 tickets in the second balcony, which featured open seating except you couldn’t get into the first three rows without greasing the ushers, which we didn’t have the money to do. The thing was, beyond the third row the ice surface started to get cut off, so you could only see maybe two-thirds of the action, which was generally enough given how bad the Rangers were in the early ’60s.
We started at the end of the Gump Worsley Era.
Team stats:
Regular season
SEASON GP MIN W L T GA SO GAA SA Sv% G A PIM 1962-63 67 3980 22 34 10 217 2 3,27 0 0 14 1961-62 60 3531 22 27 9 172 2 2,92 0 0 12 1960-61 59 3473 20 29 8 190 1 3,28 0 0 10 1959-60 41 2301 7 23 8 135 0 3,52 0 0 12 1958-59 67 4001 26 30 11 198 2 2,97 0 0 10 1957-58 37 2220 21 10 6 86 4 2,32 0 0 10 1956-57 68 4080 26 28 14 216 3 3,18 0 0 19 1955-56 70 4200 32 28 10 198 4 2,83 0 0 2 1954-55 65 3900 15 33 17 197 4 3,03 0 0 2 1952-53 50 3000 13 29 8 153 2 3,06 0 0 2 TOTAL 584 34686 204 271 101 1762 24 3,05 0 0 93Playoffs
SEASON GP MIN W L GA SO GAA SA Sv% G A PIM 1961-62 6 384 2 4 21 0 3,28 0 0 0 1957-58 6 365 2 4 28 0 4,60 0 0 0 1956-57 5 316 1 4 21 0 3,99 0 0 0 1955-56 3 180 0 3 14 0 4,67 0 0 2 TOTAL 20 1245 5 15 84 0 4,05 0 0 2
Mostly we remember Gump stopping 50 of 53 shots and losing 3-2.
But then came the Eddie Giacomin Era and the GAG – Goal A Game – line of Rod Gilbert (the NHL’s Mickey Mantle), Vic Hatfield, and Jean Ratelle (via Schulte Sports):
Sad to say, the GAG line gagged (trading Ratelle and Brad Park to the Bruins for a used-up Phil Esposito and an underperforming Carol Vadnais didn’t help) and it wasn’t until 1994 that the Rangers finally beat the 1940 curse of burning the MSG mortgage in the Stanley Cup.
Except the hardwaiting staff actually hated the ’94 Rangers.
But why get technical about it.
Cut to last night, when the Rangers actually woke up, thanks to a fluke goal when Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask tripped himself up.
After that it was off to the races, resulting in a 3-3 regulation tie and this sudden-death overtime goal from Ranger forward Chris Kreider (who pwned Bruins Kiddie Korps defenseman Dougie Hamilton).
The Rangers aren’t going to win this series. But maybe they can justify themselves before it’s over.
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Great article – more than establishes your cred. I remember hating Ed Giacomin just because he wore blue…and hating, then not hating, Brad Park. It was all so simple then.
The interesting dirty secret of those years was that four of the teams existed solely to give the other two someone to beat. We gloat on being “Original 6,” but the truth is that it was the Original 2 plus 4 “Washington Generals,” for them to play. Montreal has yet to get over the end of that era; their sense of entitlement is grounded in sixty years of fantasy, and adjusting to reality has been particularly traumatique for them. They literally do not understand the concept of not being on the power play in OT.
It sure ain’t $2 anymore. Our tix for Game 5 are just shy of ten times that apiece. If we were willing to sell them to NY suits we could meet you in the French Riviera – but of course we’re not.
Now, how about that Torto-yella guy? Are all Concord people that obnoxious, or did he “go NY”?
Wait – you got Game 5 tix for 20 bucks apiece? ________________________________________
Hoist by my own retard, eh?
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