It took me a day to lick my wounds and overcome Saturday's loss completely. Saturday night was pretty brutal, the anger and disbelief only exacerbated by the free shots that Stout was giving after every Rangers goal to go along with the 10+ drinks I had from Belmont to about 10.
Yesterday I went to a winery in Suffolk and the guy who was giving us the flight was, as luck may have it, a diehard Rangers fan. He gave us about 4-5 extra vintage tastes just because I was able to sympathize and discuss Saturday night's game with him.
I've been a member here since I don't know like 2006/2007, posted sporadically until about this year. It is usually unbearable to witness the mood swings and catastrophic dramatization that occurs here and until this year, I really wasn't able to not give a **** about how other people took wins/losses and sudden changes in fortune.
As with many people here, I was enchanted by the '11-'12 Rangers team. I'm 22 years old, just graduated BC. Despite being alive for the '94 cup, that is a mere technicality, as I have absolutely no memory of it. I have to live vicariously through my dad. But the '11-'12 team was fundamentally flawed, and after a few weeks of getting over the fact that we lost to not only an inferior team, but the much maligned and hated Devil's, I was able to comprehend the fatal flaw(s) of that Rangers team. We traded for Nash, at the time I was at my summer job when the news broke out and it took me about 45 minutes to contain my excitement. In my opinion, one of our flaws was a lack of scoring talent. We had just gotten some.
The only form of hockey success that I had been able to witness was when the Boston College Eagles won the national title my sophomore year, Kreider's last year. In (omen) concordance with that championship, the Rangers were finally the most dominant team that I had witnessed in my life, Kreider was being rumored to come help them in the playoffs, and I took it as the sign that they had to win it all - it was so clear.
Fast forward to this year, and I began posting on here more frequently. I've probably tallied up 3k posts here over the span of about 10 months - a total unthinkable to myself and to the chagrin of my girlfriend who would ban this site from existence on any of the means of internet connectivity I have if it was possible. Before the year started, I had told her father that we would win the cup. The first few months were rough, and while deep down somewhere I still wanted to believe, I began letting off steam. How could this happen to a team so talented only a year ago? I pinpointed this year's problem to a lack of resilience. There was a thread around Nov/Dec that I started with my anger that this team had then currently lacked what it took to come back down from games - to fight for one another. Around December, I started noticing that they began incorporating this character trait on a more frequent basis and to go along with this, my excitement and belief that had been laying dormant for several months began to return.
Since about January, I've refused to believe that this team wasn't capable of making a dent in this year's playoffs. Mocked and even ridiculed by many on this board for being so "naive" and even purportedly "unable to understand hockey" for my estimations and predictions, my faith in the team only grew. Teams of destiny usually defy the current of the stream and if this year's Rangers squad was a team of destiny, they would shock everyone.
The playoffs came and for every series I began taking a few hours out of a day to research as much as I could about our opposing teams. I'd write a comprehensive review that for every series showed us as favorites, although I was careful not to include my final prediction in any of those - by nature, I am incredibly superstitious. I had the Rangers in 5, Rangers in 7, and Rangers in 6 for all 3 of those series' before they all began. Close enough.
And similarly to those past 3 series', I wrote a review comparing us to the LA Kings. And in it I believed that we would be the more dominant team in this series. Ultimately, I thought that we would win in 6 games. We're faster, fresher, and have the best goaltender in the world - is a barebones reflection of what I wrote about a week ago (although I had about 12-15 points that I highlighted on that characterized us as the unlikely favorites).
I was disappointed but not surprised by losing the first game. I was shocked at how we lost in game 2. And while my faith did not flicker it was hard not to throw a major pity party. I've never seen this team win it all, truth be told every team that I support (besides that BC Eagles team) has been snake bitten (Rangers, Jets, Mets, Knicks).
It occurred to me that this is part of the process. There are all types of fans that range in avidity. I consider myself a diehard (most avid) for the Rangers. And what type of fan would I be if I only supported the team when they were successful? That would make me a fair-weather fan, and I sure as hell did not begin supporting this team right during its inception of the dark ages ('98-'04) to consider myself a fair-weather fan. It also occurred to me that glory only tastes so sweet and is declared so triumphant because of the failures and disappointments encountered along the way. It wouldn't be as significant if there wasn't adversity that needed to be overcome.
I know it's a common point for many of us to address how the Rangers "never make anything easy"... but given the option, I doubt many, if any of us, would prefer the easy route in winning a championship. The hardships are what make anything special memorable... and we sure as hell have had one memorable season and post season this year.
I woke up this morning, more confident than ever that we would win tonight. We will win tonight. This is a team of destiny. And no amount of negativity or wound licking will dissuade me from this notion. We have been faster, fresher, more dominant in 7 of the 9 periods we have played in. And the unlucky bounces that have gone the Kings way are purely meant to test this team's will on their path to achieving something that for some of us, we have never seen - a cup victory.
And in the event that I am wrong, that we lose this game and ultimately this series, this team's core is still in its youth. This is an invaluable experience for everyone involved. And we have arguably a top 5 coach in the league that just came from a pressure cooker in Canada and led them to 5 very successful teams that ultimately choked because of one un-clutch goaltender. We will be back, we will be built slightly better (no dead-weight... i'm looking at you Brad Richards), and we will be a very dominant team in a conference that is primed to only get worse during our projected years to contend for the cup (next 2-5).
There are only positives to take away from this.
But, not to deviate from the task at hand tonight and for the next 1.5 weeks (hopefully)... this is our night, this is our year, and all of the adversity that we face will turn into pride in the coming days.
I refuse to believe that this team will lay down and die, it is not their M.O. I refuse to believe that the Kings will deviate from their lack of killer instinct to bury us. I refuse to believe that their legs aren't shot and they'll be getting slower and more tired with each coming game, this one included.
We will win tonight. That is all. LGR.
- but come on, people. You don't know enough to talk about it (look in the mirror, I know 
)
