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November 7, 2002
New York, New York
By Matt Petersen
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NEW YORK -- Just about everything’s been pretty rosy
for the three of us so far. Haven’t had it too hard,
and for the most part, we’ve had plenty of time to get
to our games. Things are about to change as we are
about to hit a long string of back-to-back games (six
in seven days) that will test the mettle of this crew.
And what a better place for a test than the Big Apple.
Time flew on our first day in the City, and it felt
like we spent most of it in Manhattan traffic. Thank
goodness we had a native New Yorker in Joe with us,
because navigating in and around the area was just
about as enjoyable as a high stick to the chops. We
paid our respects at the World Trade Center site, and
not having ever seen the great towers in person, I
stared straight up at the void and imagined where they
used to be. We petered around Manhattan a little more,
ate some authentic “New Yawk” pizzapie, and tried to
get up the Empire State Building (20 bucks, no thanks)
before we finally headed over to the Madison Square
Garden where the Rangers and Calgary would soon
face-off.
Although the game was sort of dull and it took the
fans a while to get away from their conversations and
get to cheering, just being in that old building gave
me goosebumps. Supposedly it seats over 18,000, but it
didn’t look like it could hold more than 12 to me. The
game picked up down the stretch. The fans got going
with their “Let’s go Rangers” chants, and after a 0-0
regulation, resident ageless defenseman, Brian Leetch,
put the puck in the back of the net for a 1-0 win.
As we left our $30 parking lot (we were one of the
only bozo’s who drove to the game), it hardly occurred
to Jeff and I that it would be some of our last sights
of the city since the next day’s game was deep in the
‘Burbs of Long Island. Of everything we’d take in that
day, it would be a mere blink of the eye of at the
snapshot of the great New York City.
The next day, after admiring the Statue of Liberty
from Liberty Point, we spent half the day sitting in
more traffic trying to get to the Islanders game. Long
Island, is in fact, a pretty long island, and every
single soul in New York must have been heading up to
the Hamptons for the weekend because it was a freakin’
quagmire.
We left Jersey at 1:00 p.m., and including our one
stop, it took us four hours to travel the
approximately 30 miles to Nassau Coliseum. By the time
we unloaded our gear and began to set up, it was cold,
the wind was howling and it felt like it was going to
be a long night. We were feeling a little tired and
hadn’t eaten all day -- and I was operating on no
caffeine. Gasp.
Surprisingly, we did pretty good. Overall, the weather
held up for us (no rain), and we met some cool fans,
who to our surprise, opted to bash the NY Rangers
rather than that night’s opponent, the Edmonton
Oilers. We enjoyed ourselves in our upper-level seats,
and Joe ate “the best hot-dog of the trip” for four
bucks. We sat in front of six Edmonton fans who never
got a real chance to enjoy a good game since the
Islanders took it to Edmonton right from the get-go.
Buoyed by the steady play of journeyman netminder
Chris Osgood and two goals by Dave Scatchard, the
“Isle” took care of the struggling “Oil” 4-2.
After the game, Jeff sung the praises of the Islanders
crowd, and went out on a limb saying that it was a
better hockey experience in Long Island. I enjoyed our
experience, but I couldn’t go against the lore and
excitement of seeing a game at the Garden.
Next stop Buffalo, where we’d stay with a Hockey Hall
of Famer and Jeff’s childhood idol...
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as they embark on their quest to set a World Record
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