On the Rink with Gootz: It’s All About Perspective

It has been a crazy few weeks in the New York sports scene. The Big Blue Wreckin’ Crew beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, Yankees fans are drooling over the fact that A.J Burnett may be on his way out, the Knicks and their fans are caught up in “Linsanity”, Mark Sanchez asked Santonio Holmes to be his Valentine, and the Mets…well, they are the Mets. Oh yeah, and the New York Rangers just shutout the defending Stanley Cup champions on the road and now lead the Eastern Conference by nine points and have the best winning percentage in the NHL. Only the Detroit Red Wings (surprise…) are ahead of the Rangers with 80 points, but New York has three games in hand on the them; having a 21-game winning streak (and counting) at home will certainly help you get there.

Giants, Patriots, & New York Rangers Hockey on Super Bowl Sunday: Will History Repeat?

For the New York Rangers this afternoon, history repeated itself, because the last time they played on a Super Bowl Sunday, they won on the same day that the New York Giants and New England Patriots squared off in one of the most memorable football games in recent history, four years ago. With the atmosphere in New York swelling around the big game on February 3, 2008, the Rangers headed up to Montreal where they got off to a very slow start, falling behind 3-0. But very quickly, the game started to turn around, and the Rangers made sure that the Giants were not the only New York team to win that day. After goals by Michal Rozsival, Brandon Dubinsky, and Scott Gomez to tie the game after two periods, the Rangers then went ahead and steamrolled the Canadiens in their home building (an extreme rarity) with two third period goals, scored by Chris Drury and Martin Straka. The feeling we felt after this game was complete elation, because Montreal’s arena had (and still has) always proved to be a House of Horrors. The happy feeling would only be eclipsed for Giants’ fans later in the day, as they defeated the Patriots, ending their incredible undefeated season.