Escape From New York: Rangers Head To The Coast

“Go west, young man.”

Horace Greeley, a pretty good newspaperman, lifted (and changed) that quote and wound up getting credit for it down through the ages. He founded and ran the New York Tribune more than two centuries ago. The Trib was a thoughtful, temperate Whig mouthpiece, much respected by the nation’s intelligentsia.

Not the kind of place which would willingly house Larry Brooks.

Luckily, the New York Post is more than happy to publish the Dean of Ranger beat writers, whose words were burned into the team’s retinas as they lifted off:

“These are the Rangers, exposed as too small, too passive, too deficient in talent, too uptight, playing uninspired hockey while looking for a way out of New York as if their myriad problems won’t accompany the team on the three-game (western) trip…..”

The Escape From New York came just ahead of the long-suffering fans storming the Garden with torches, pitchforks and clubs.

In New York, “fan” has become a synonym for “chump,” which includes yours truly. This became crystal clear after watching the Rangers lose to the Carolina Hurricanes Wednesday night. For dessert, we heard John Tortorella talk about “all of the stuff around us,” and the need to get out of town. And we saw Henrik Lundqvist look more and more like he’s spiralling into a major depression.

I chumpishly watched this dreadful performance by the Rangers, owned by the Dolans. I watched on Cablevision, owned by the Dolans. Tuned to MSG Network, owned by the Dolans.

There truly is no way out. And if I feel trapped, how about the poor sods who actually pay to attend these games?

We’re all filling Cablevision’s pockets, night-in, night-out, and frankly, we’re not getting a hell of a lot in return.

[Perhaps the lone bright spot emerging from Cablevision hegemony is the coverage of Newsday’s Steve Zipay, who is actually with the team on its west coast trip. He gets to fly around with them, I’m theorizing, because Cablevision bought his newspaper (Newsday) a little while ago. Wouldn’t do to treat Zipay like the rest of the local hockey writers, who cover away games via TV or Amtrak.]

Maybe a three game west coast trip will help. Maybe they’ll get five or six points and come home triumphant. Maybe they’ll play miserably and skulk home hoping nobody noticed.

Whatever happens out west, I hope they decide to scratch and claw when they return. The two week period before the Olympics will be separation time, when the many teams bunched around the final few playoff spots in the East will start to move up….or down.

Perhaps a screening of Escape From New York on the team plane is called for. Snake Plisken had a really hard time in Manhattan, you’ll recall. But he was a tough guy, good with his fists, his wits and any variety of weapons and ultimately prevailed. I can only wish the same for the Rangers. Eye patches all around.

Update:  The intrepid Andrew Gross, long-time Rangers beat man is also flying to Phoenix, he tweets.  Andrew currently works for whatever they’re calling the Bergen Record these days.