Because I live in Australia, ice hockey games are very hard to come by on TV, but I liked the sport from playing NHL 97. Eventually the game broke and I lost interest in hockey until after the lockout (which I didn't even know about), when I felt like I needed a sports game for my collection.
I started up NHL 06 and picked the first team that I remembered from NHL 97; the Rangers, to play as, which is how I more or less affiliated myself with the Rangers.
After the lockout, Australian TV also started to show NHL games on occasion, and one day, I was channel surfing and came across a game in the dying seconds. From this I got curious about how the real Rangers were doing, so, off I went to rangers.com and I haven't looked back since.
Similar for me. Back when i was younger England had 4 tv channels, and none of them showed hockey. By chance I picked up NHL 94, and loved it. Seeing as they'd just picked up the cup, the Rangers were one of the better teams in the game, so I chose them more often than not...
If the 12 year old me had known of the dark ages between 97 and 2004 to come... it might have been a different story... but i doubt it.
I first became a NYR fan when my dad told me I could be a NYR fan or I could be put up for adoption.
Obvious choice was obvious.
__________________
"I used to pray for good things . I used to ask the Hockey Gods for puck luck for the NYR .
Now all I want is Torts the smug stupid goatee clown to be fired , . I hate Torts . Please hockey gods make him get fired. Please Sean punch him in face" -- Dorado
The first NHL game I ever went to was a New York Rangers - Florida Panthers game down in Florida. My dad took me to see Gretzky play and I started rooting for the Rangers from there.
I'm from Columbus so I started rooting for the Bluejackets in 2000, but I still loved the Rangers. Two years ago I moved to New York and that was that as far as the Jackets were concerned.
Born in Yonkers but was just a kid when I came to Ontario canada. Picked the rangers when I was a kid. Weird cause my dad was a jets and isles fab but I liked the giants and nyr . Only team we both rooted for us the mets.
My dad was a nasty goalie when he was younger but he wasn't good enough to go pro, so he became a NYPD cop. He lived in Long Beach and played pick up with the Rangers in the off season since a lot of them stayed there (Long Beach was their practice facility at the time). He obviously became a huge Ranger fan since he was playing with the team and the guys were giving him sticks left and right. To this day, he says his dumbest moments were using Eddie Giacomin's sticks in games and breaking them all.
Anyway, I was born in '91, then my dad did security for the '94 All-Star game and got me a NYR puck filled with autographs. I don't know all of them, but one side has Richter and Davidson for sure with some other guys. The other side has Gretzky and Howe.
Grew up in Totowa, NJ home of Ice World where the Devils practiced. We're talking around 1983-1984. I was around 9-10 years old and used to ride my bicycle there whenever the Devils were practicing in hopes of meeting someone.
One day I happened to meet Chico Resch and asked him for his autograph to which he replied, "Sorry kid, I can't be bothered right now." He rushed through the lobby area and never looked back.
In hindsight and as an adult I realize something must have been going on in his life at that moment. Resch has had nothing but good things said about him and he is a notoriously nice guy. But as a 9 year old I didn't know that. That was arguably the biggest moment in my life at that point and to be responded to in that manner crushed me. I rode home, distraught, and threw away all my Devils stuff and literally, overnight, became a Rangers fan.
My father and uncle were both big Wayne Gretzky fans and my uncle was a semi-pro player that had a full ride to Northeastern University. He used to play down at Long Beach ice rink, where the Rangers practiced up until 1985 because he grew up and went to high school there, so he got to play with the Mullen's, other Ranger players such as George McPhee, Ron Duguay and others. My uncle was more of the Ranger fan, but he helped a little bit. I started watching the Rangers religiously in 1991-92 after playing NHL hockey for Sega and choosing New York. They had just made the Messier trade and everyone was going nuts. I was relatively young, but more than old enough to understand just how big the trade was, and everything unfolded from there including me going to the parade in 94 and SEVERAL games during that 94 playoff run.
But what sold me was when the rangers took the semi final series from the Islanders that year. That team sent the all star islanders home to play golf and good riddance to them, especially Billy Smith.
Those days some rangers games were on channel 9 WOR which was just great.
I later went to Stonybrook in 82 when the icelanders were in top form and all those bandwagon fans cheering a team they couldn't even name more than a player or two from. The writing was on the wall then that the team was doomed to the trash bin. Now I actually feel sorry for them which is really sweet
Looking back on it, during those days of Islander glory and living on Long Island was a real gut check. Never lost the faith in the rangers though
I grew up in walking distance to meadowlands, got into hockey after watching Leetch in the 1988 olympics. Why am i a ranger fan instead of a devil fan? because rangers were in basic cable (and occasionally channel 9) and devils were on sportschannel which cost more.
My dad tried to make me a Detroit fan since birth, but I wanted to change for some reason. I put in NHL something for Super Nintendo and looked through all the teams. New York was one of the only cities I had heard of and I knew it was one of the greatest in the world so why not.
That was sometime in the mid or late 90s and being from Canada and not having the computers and internet, there weren't many Rangers games available. We got center ice or whatever sometime during the 02-03 season so that's when I really started watching. I didn't start to feel the Devils hate until the next season so during that 02-03 season I really wanted Brodeur to break playoffs shutout record and win The Cup. :puke:
I played against Henrik Lundqvist in the juniors a couple of times. I was initially a fan of Patrick Roy (Montreal Canadians and subsequently Colorado Avalanche), but since he retired, and Lundqvist broke into NHL a few years later I started following the Rangers.
I was originally a Devils fan in 99, I was 11 at the time and I loved Marty Brodeur. Had the coolest helmet in the league. Still like and respect him :gasp:. But then I lost interest in hockey after a few years.
I was following(not a fan) of the Rangers because of all the dumb signings, Redden and Gomez and how much Sather sucked. I laughed always when I saw Renney chewing gum. As soon as he was fired, and Torts was hired, I became a fan.
My parents aunts and uncles came from soccer powerhouse nations where hockey is unheard of. But I did have older cousins who were huge sports fans and me being the young one wanting to be just like them. So I grew up a redskins rangers Yankee fan.
My 1st memory was in 92 playoffs the rangers just beat the devils and Claude Lemieux. I remember telling my cuz that we beat 1 Lemieux what's so hard about the second one. Little dd I know as a nieve 10 year old.
I first stating watching hockey in 1967. My home town team the Fife Flyers of course.
I started off liking the Leafs, probably due to them winning the cup that year. Also remember, hockey news from 'across the water' back then was pretty scarce. Subsequent years when hockey was shown on British TV it was the Olympics and the games between Russia and the Czechs which were predominant.
Then, in or around 1970, I turned to the Rangers. Dunno why exactly but have been a fan since and even have a NYR tattoo and will be getting another one soon.
I fulfilled one of my lifetime ambitions to get over and see the Rangers last year, beating the Leafs 7-0. Ambition accomplished
If we`d have made the final this year I was coming back, even if it was to watch the games in a bar.
I was about 5 years old. My dad, who was a VP at a bank, always got us free tickets to various games. I remember taking the train into the city and coming out just outside the Garden. I couldn't believe how big the building was and found myself captivated before the game even began.
The Rangers were playing the Caps in a very spirited bout. I can still remember glimpses of the game - the Maloneys, Gresch, Beck, a few others.
I can't remember if it was one of the games Beezer played that season, but by the next season he was quickly becoming the man, and my favorite player.
Needless to say, being a Rangers, Yankees, Giants and Kicks fan is just in my blood.
I actually first liked all local NJ teams, as a young kid you know you root for the locals. I remember my uncle got my sis and I Devils' jerseys. But we didn't have Sportschannel(now MSG Plus) on our cable. So I started watching Rangers' games. I can remember as far back as '92, hence my forever hatred for Pittsburgh. First ever game I went to was actually Devils vs Oilers which had a goalie fight. First Rangers' game was in '96 vs Boston. As I got older and more into the Rangers my uncle, also a die hard Rangers' fan, bought more and more tickets each season. And this was during the Dark Age. I went to every Rangers Devils game at the Meadowlands during that time and got so much abuse, but I guess it only made me stronger. 2002 my uncle finally got seasons in 412, then 411 where to this day my family has many friends from the section. Each summer we have a BBQ and catch up. Anyway, I'm 27 now, been through the rough times, obsessed with this team, and imagine if my cable provider had Sportschannel, I'd be posting on the Devils' board, ewwww.
85-86 season, when we moved from queens to LI. MSG was a ch i had on for WWF, the hockey would come on.
I couldn't under stand at that early age why the goalie was pulled in the final mins, my 1st thought was aren't they trying to win the game, why take out the goalie?
My brother was always a huge Rangers fan since he was a little kid and was 12 when I was born in 92. I was always really close with him, so he was the one that got me into the Rangers. I just remember being a fan. I really can't say when I started. I was a fan as long as I remembered. When I was four or five was when I went to my first game. I'd say I was a fan since birth.
When I moved from New York, it was hard to follow them being so young (moved to Wilmington, DE in 98). But I always relied on ESPN and the newspaper. I was a big fan then. Then I moved to Tampa in 99. During the dark times, I'd still always be that kid going to see the Rangers with my Mark Messier jersey or my Lady Liberty.
Then in 05, I just became a wacky-psycho Ranger even more because we finally had a nice computer with broadband with no restrictions from the mom, so my access to the team was without limit.
I was a big fan pre-lockout. Post-lockout, I became an animal Rangers fan.
Last edited by Florida Ranger: 09-05-2012 at 04:20 PM.
the Boston Bruins
