Maccabees Games

A look at the New York sports scene and the sporting world at large.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Requiem for the Rangers

The New York Rangers played the last two months with the heart of a champion.

With the 4-2 playoff series loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the Rangers were far closer to winning this series and possibly the Stanley Cup than one would think.

In the 400 minutes of this series, the Rangers had the better play ¾ of the time, if not more.

Except for Game 1, when the Rangers played poorly for about 6 minutes, every game was decided by only one goal.

The team played as a team throughout the playoffs. Their defense was basically stellar. They never gave up.

All of this was despite a lineup full of rookie latecomers and second year players, older players on defense who were never first line defensemen, older players on the forward lines who are past their prime or who never entered their prime except on the European level.

Yet ALL of them played with guts and heart. All of them worked their tail off. All of them played with a togetherness that can only be defined in sportsmanship as teamwork.

And this team will be the better for it.

Though we can all shout the couldas and the wouldas and the ‘if only ifs’ – that is all speculation. The certainty is that this team played through adversity, though most of it through their own making, with fortitude that will serve them well in the future.

And what does that future hold?

Free agent signings, trades and a new crop of rookies are a certainty. Hustle, spirit and teamwork will define next years’ Rangers.

What about a Stanley Cup run?

One can only hope so.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, were you (are you) a teacher in Be'er Hagolah in Brooklyn?

7:44 PM  

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