With all due respect to my baseball-obsessed audience, October for me is usually about the start of hockey season.
You see, as a Mets fan, it’s usually about the time I normally put away the Mets hat and break out the #2 Brian Leetch jersey and five-year old black & gold Koho hockey stick.
Well, so far this month I’ve become rather obsessed myself with the MLB postseason – which is partly a responsibility of my employment with Newsday.com – and I have been frustratingly unable to watch much hockey so far.
So tonight, when I woke up from a two-hour catch-up nap to discover the Mets-Cardinals Game 5 was rained out, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I whisked into the kitchen, cooked up a little Hamburger Helper (good, working-class, hockey-watching food) and plopped down in my recliner for a long night of thinking about nothing but hockey.
What a welcome change of scenery!
For the first time all season, I watched a Rangers game from start to finish. Those of you who know me realize that – six games into the season -- this is a huge upset. During commercials and intermissions, I flipped over to FSN2 (aka Ch. 14) to check in on the Islanders-Predators game.
So I thought I’d share my belated early-season observations with my hockey-obsessed audience:
*I don’t care how you spin it. Devils hockey is BORING. Spend 40 minutes flipping the puck back and forth between the bluelines, 18 minutes killing off penalties you took because you were frustrated by their ridiculously staunch defense – leaving you with about 2 minutes of good, enjoyable hockey. Fortunately the Rangers scored four times in those two minutes and the Devils were undone for one night.
*Seriously, the Devils should be kicked out of the league.
*Except for Brian Gionta – I like him. And Marty Brodeur, because he handles the puck better than any goalie I’ve seen in my 26 years.
*What an absolute joy it is to hear Jiggs McDonald’s voice back on the air again. With all due respect to Howie Rose, who is a nice man and a good play-by-play guy, he doesn’t hold a candle to Jiggs. His voice just drips ‘Islanders hockey.’ Between the lousy picture on Channel 14 and the fact that the Islanders were wearing their classic blue jerseys, it allowed me to think back to the days of SportsChannel, with Jiggs and Ed Westfall on the call: “David Volek… over to Kurvers at the point… Now to Flatley, he SCORRRRRRES! Oh mercy what a play by Patrick Flatley!”
*By the way, a tip of the cap to new Islanders color commentator Billy Jaffe. He seems to be fitting in very nicely, and he’s clearly done his research – noting that backup Wade Dubielewicz is used to coming in as a late-game replacement after a shot caught Mike Dunham in the head.
*I also think Joe Micheletti has done a nice job replacing John Davidson on MSG. Rangers are fans aren’t necessarily going to warm up to him quickly -- considering he’s replacing the best color man in hockey – but give him time.
*Hey, Islanders fans. You sure do a lot of complaining about your team. But I saw a whole lot of people disguised as empty seats at Nassau Coliseum tonight. A silent protest or just genuine apathy? Send me an e-mail and give me your thoughts.
*Baseball returns tomorrow night, which means my attention will be divided again. But don’t worry, once it’s all over (hopefully after the Mets win it all), I’ll be back with more NHL blogging.
Comments (3)
Have the Rangers been contracted due to lack of interest in New York. Get Zipay and Logan on the Islander beat and dump the lowly Rags.
How many phoney posted sellouts does Dolan put up because that sea of empty purple seats are the apathy toward the Rangers.
So many nights Msg cannot give away tickets for Ranger hockey at the boxoffice.
You really captured the spirit of the thing.