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.
Campaign Outsider 