Back in 1979 the Rangers were playing vs the Canadians in the finals and I was 9 yrs old. My Uncle Ray was a huge Rangers fan and a very funny but classy guy. He was the president of a few high end country clubs in Alpine NJ and wore a tux to work daily.. He was very classy and educated (insert joke about me now lol )... Any way back to the story he had this theory that the NHL only wants Canadian teams to win and be successful because it is a Canadian game and with NY winning it is a direct insult the country of Canada.. Well he felt the ref's were dead set against the Rangers and finally had enough and called information in Toronto no easy task in 1979 with no internet and having to call 411 to get the number for 411 in Canada. He gets the number and call the leagues offices and gets through i mean he get to John Ziegler himself and buries him on the phone and was even asked about what calls were so bad.. My dad and I sat there in amazement .. My uncle hangs up and says now watch the next game how many power plays we get lol... 21 yrs ago today he passed away and i miss him every time i watch hockey.. but this story amazes me to this day how cool it was before screeners and computers ..
Awesome story Dagoon! I actually have a story about my Uncle that has passed away as well. It was during the Rangers/Islanders game at MSG on St. Patricks Day. Chad Pennington was there and my Uncle is a diehard Giants fan. Long story short, my uncle was bashing on Pennington the whole night and then finally Pennington calls my uncle over and asked him to safely get him out of MSG. Chad then jumped on my uncles back and my uncle bulldozed Chad out of there. My uncle also brought me to a game a while back and walking out of the MSG store with my newly purchased Pavel Bure jersey, this lady walks up to me and asked if I wanted to ride the Zamboni and I rode it during the 2nd intermission. Thought they were pretty cool stories.
