I love the spirit of the Rangers. I love the spirit of this fanbase. I love the leatherlunged screechers in the blue seats. I love Dancin’ Larry.
I can agree that it’s certainly fun to watch the Rangers not only beat their top division rival this season, the Philadelphia Flyers (let’s be fair: the only rivalry worth noting in the Eastern Conference is Philly/NY this year), and it’s a blast watching them beat them and beat them and beat them.
Cally in the Broadway Hat (Photo Credit to Ranger Nation)
Today a lot of things “clicked” for our Broadway Blues against the Broad Street Bullies (though one might argue, the bullying is taking place on the side of the Blueshirts). The power play has been an issue? What problem?! The Rangers scored three power play goals. Brad Richards on a goal-scoring slump. What slump? He’s been on a tear, and generating assisting plays. Marian Gaborik? Nuff said. Ryan Callahan? Aptly gets the Broadway Hat on the day he earns a Hat Trick.
What, me worry?
The last game at MSG, you heard distinct chants in the arena. “You can’t BEAT us!” Clever. I love the spirit of Ranger fans, I really do. And today, in Philly, as the game was going on, our resident Tri-Team of Pain Fan (Mets, Jets and Rangers), Metstradamus, commented on Facebook today that, “The Rangers must pay high rent for that premium space in the Flyers’ heads.”
Photo Credit to Ranger Nation
Before the game even ended, our friends over at Ranger Nation had the aforementioned logo on their Facebook page. Love the spirit folks…but…
Can we tone down the rhetoric? A little? Look, we can have our fun. Personally, I’d rather wait to steamroll over these guys in the playoffs than dominate in the regular season.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE dominating this team in the regular season. It’s nice to see at least ONE of my teams making an impact against a Philadelphia rival, especially the Flyers, since they have a good team. It was nice to beat them in the Winter Classic, and it’s certainly fun watching the Rangers destroy the Creamsicles in regular seasons.
I guess…I’m just superstitious. Hell, I wouldn’t be a good sports fan if I wasn’t superstitious.
But something tells me….
Not to be too overjoyed.
It’s easy to get caught in the moment, and I even have to admit that on my Gal For All Seasons FB page, I was in the spirit of ” You can’t beat us!” It’s fun and I kind of like being on the end of taunting rather than the other way around.
In 1988, the Mets rolled over the Dodgers in the regular season, only to lose during the playoffs in seven games to them that year. Heartbreaking. I’m still not over it.
The Rangers shouldn’t have a problem beating Philly, but it’ll be different should they meet in the playoffs this year. A best-of-seven series is different than every other week at this point. I’m sure I’m preaching to the Pope over here.
I guess I’d rather save the cute chants for the playoffs. Wasn’t it just barely two seasons ago that the Rangers lost the last regular season game to Philly, and the Flyers went on an improbable run to the finals? Yeah, I remember that too. I’m a firm believer that it’s never just about the last game of the season, when there were plenty other games the Rangers could have won and did not win. Yet, I feel like all this…the reverse motivation?
I’m having fun…I’d just rather save the energy for the playoffs. You know, when we’ll need to have fun. And it will be fun this year. And we can have fun in the meantime.
But as Raymond Carver once said…Can we please be quiet…please?
A Gal For All Seasons 
I dunno – I think you ought to bring it against your rivals every chance you get. Preseason, postseason, the colors and hate don’t fade. I love a good dose of hate between teams. it can’t be manufactured, but when it happens naturally, it really fuels the history.