Devils 8, Rangers 5
1. You are not allowed to bring food in. Granted I went through security once without learning this lesson. It wasn’t until I tried to leave the Devils Den (team store) that I was reminded of this fact. Apparently you must go through security a second time when you leave the store and my homemade cookies, which I had made for the office bake-off that I lost (totally robbed by the way) were confiscated. On a plus side, the food was actually quite yummy. The fries especially were hot and crispy!
2. The national anthem is not sacred in Newark…especially for Ranger fans who yelled out Devils suck during the middle of it. And while I do not condone such actions, it wasn’t a particularly good rendition, so it wasn’t really taking much away from that.
3. Devils fans still do not like Scott Gomez. A fact I doubt will ever change, however they got a little lackadaisical on the booing every time he touched the puck.
4. Devils Ice Dancers are lame. My first thought when I saw these ladies on the jumbotron was that Kelli Finglass, director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, would have had a heart attack if she had to deal with these dancers. Their moves were like a JV squad in middle school and their costumes were pretty awful. And most importantly, never once did they move their act from the handicap section on the first concourse to the ice. Lame, if you’re called ice dancers, you should do your moves on the ice. And by the way, in the hierarchy of cheerleaders/dances in the tri-state area where do the Devils Ice Girls fall? Are they more impressive than being an Islanders Ice Girl? Are they behind the Nets Dancers and above the New Jersey Ironmen Dance Team (indoor soccer club)? Are the Nets Dancers the rejects from the Knicks City Dancers? And is being a Knicks City Dancer more prestigious that being on the Jets cheerleading squad?
1. You are not allowed to bring food in. Granted I went through security once without learning this lesson. It wasn’t until I tried to leave the Devils Den (team store) that I was reminded of this fact. Apparently you must go through security a second time when you leave the store and my homemade cookies, which I had made for the office bake-off that I lost (totally robbed by the way) were confiscated. On a plus side, the food was actually quite yummy. The fries especially were hot and crispy!
2. The national anthem is not sacred in Newark…especially for Ranger fans who yelled out Devils suck during the middle of it. And while I do not condone such actions, it wasn’t a particularly good rendition, so it wasn’t really taking much away from that.
3. Devils fans still do not like Scott Gomez. A fact I doubt will ever change, however they got a little lackadaisical on the booing every time he touched the puck.
4. Devils Ice Dancers are lame. My first thought when I saw these ladies on the jumbotron was that Kelli Finglass, director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, would have had a heart attack if she had to deal with these dancers. Their moves were like a JV squad in middle school and their costumes were pretty awful. And most importantly, never once did they move their act from the handicap section on the first concourse to the ice. Lame, if you’re called ice dancers, you should do your moves on the ice. And by the way, in the hierarchy of cheerleaders/dances in the tri-state area where do the Devils Ice Girls fall? Are they more impressive than being an Islanders Ice Girl? Are they behind the Nets Dancers and above the New Jersey Ironmen Dance Team (indoor soccer club)? Are the Nets Dancers the rejects from the Knicks City Dancers? And is being a Knicks City Dancer more prestigious that being on the Jets cheerleading squad?
(NOTE: Was just informed they are not "ice dancers" but rather the Devils dancers, which explains the lack of ice time, but still, it's hockey, dancing on the ice should be some sort of requirement!)
5. If you pronounce Gilbert like Gilbert (as in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) you should have your Rangers jersey taken away. Enough said.
6. Friday nights in Newark will hence forth be called fight night. There were at least four all-out fights and a whole bunch of scrums during this game. It started with Colton Orr and Mike Rupp’s awesome fight and continued throughout the night with Aaron Voros and David Clarkson getting into it followed by Dan Girardi and Travis Zajac and then there was Ryan Callahan and Jamie Langenbrunner. There was also some stick fighting between Brandon Dubinsky and Mike Rupp that was called for roughing before anything truly dangerous could happen.
7. 7. The number of cool people at the game. (aka the number of people wearing Sean Avery jerseys)
8. Children are no excuse for people to stop their poor behavior, being over the age of 15 should be enough of a reason to act like an adult. Two euro trash looking Devils fans (and I am not saying that because they were Devils fans) were chanting “Henry” during the second period around the time the Devils were up, 5-1. Eventually this man who was there with his two children requested that these fans stop their taunting because his two kids (who both appeared to be under the age of 6) were with him. The men turned around, glared at him and told him that was no excuse. In all honesty, chanting “Henry” is incredibly tame compared to other things they could have said. Not to mention, the dad wasn’t exactly on his best behavior as the game progressed.
9. This maybe the lamest head gear a fan can wear at a game.
10. The Devils love SNL. During the TV timeouts, it seemed like the Devils used every cliché SNL skit possible to keep the fans busy for two minutes. My favorite skit being when they inserted the Devils mascot into the Chip-and-Dales dancer sequence with Chris Farley. However, can we please retire the cowbell skit? At this point, everyone uses it now.
5. If you pronounce Gilbert like Gilbert (as in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) you should have your Rangers jersey taken away. Enough said.
6. Friday nights in Newark will hence forth be called fight night. There were at least four all-out fights and a whole bunch of scrums during this game. It started with Colton Orr and Mike Rupp’s awesome fight and continued throughout the night with Aaron Voros and David Clarkson getting into it followed by Dan Girardi and Travis Zajac and then there was Ryan Callahan and Jamie Langenbrunner. There was also some stick fighting between Brandon Dubinsky and Mike Rupp that was called for roughing before anything truly dangerous could happen.
7. 7. The number of cool people at the game. (aka the number of people wearing Sean Avery jerseys)
8. Children are no excuse for people to stop their poor behavior, being over the age of 15 should be enough of a reason to act like an adult. Two euro trash looking Devils fans (and I am not saying that because they were Devils fans) were chanting “Henry” during the second period around the time the Devils were up, 5-1. Eventually this man who was there with his two children requested that these fans stop their taunting because his two kids (who both appeared to be under the age of 6) were with him. The men turned around, glared at him and told him that was no excuse. In all honesty, chanting “Henry” is incredibly tame compared to other things they could have said. Not to mention, the dad wasn’t exactly on his best behavior as the game progressed.
9. This maybe the lamest head gear a fan can wear at a game.
10. The Devils love SNL. During the TV timeouts, it seemed like the Devils used every cliché SNL skit possible to keep the fans busy for two minutes. My favorite skit being when they inserted the Devils mascot into the Chip-and-Dales dancer sequence with Chris Farley. However, can we please retire the cowbell skit? At this point, everyone uses it now.
11. The Rangers should decline power plays. The Rangers gave up their 9th and 10th short handed goals of the season and in total went 0-9 on the power play.
12. The Prudential Center is like the Applebees of Hockey Arenas. Now, I’ve only been to three different arenas to watch a hockey game, one of which, the Izod Center (then the Continental Airlines Arena nee Brendan Byrne Arena) no longer hosts hockey events, so I don’t know if this is common place or not, but on the first concourse level, the Rock had jerseys for all of the local hockey teams in NJ. My brother and I wandered around until we finally found the Ridgewood jersey. And it took us a little bit of time; I guess I never realized how many other teams wear maroon and white.
13. The crowds get very feisty…but no fisticuffs. My brother said that if this game was at MSG there would have been a ton of fights in the crowd, but as it stood there was just a lot of shouting and pointing fingers, but no one got out of their seat and I didn’t see anyone being escorted out of the building. Lame! I felt like I was back at Yankee Stadium this season at a Red Sox/Yankees game. All hype but in the end, a major let down.
14. Fake dancing Larry sucks. The Devils employ some guy to run around the arena dancing and taking off layers of t-shirts to give to the fans. First of all, even if you paid me, I would not accept a t-shirt this guy was sweating all over. And secondly, this whole stunt was just lame. It takes away from actual fans getting their faces on the jumbotron and it’s manufactured excitement. There’s no need to manufacture this crap, if you allow it, hockey fans will give you more than enough excitement to fill up your jumbotron segments.
15. Butch Goring takes public transportation. As I was waiting for our train to depart Newark Penn Station, for my journey home, who should jump onto my train but Butch Goring. At that point, I was far too exhausted from such a crazy back-and-forth game to even take out my cellphone to snap a picture. So instead you’ll have to settle for this photo.
While I still contend that there was no need to create the Rock, it wasn’t a horrible place to catch a hockey game. I’m getting so weak in my old age!
For more photos from the game, click here.
12. The Prudential Center is like the Applebees of Hockey Arenas. Now, I’ve only been to three different arenas to watch a hockey game, one of which, the Izod Center (then the Continental Airlines Arena nee Brendan Byrne Arena) no longer hosts hockey events, so I don’t know if this is common place or not, but on the first concourse level, the Rock had jerseys for all of the local hockey teams in NJ. My brother and I wandered around until we finally found the Ridgewood jersey. And it took us a little bit of time; I guess I never realized how many other teams wear maroon and white.
13. The crowds get very feisty…but no fisticuffs. My brother said that if this game was at MSG there would have been a ton of fights in the crowd, but as it stood there was just a lot of shouting and pointing fingers, but no one got out of their seat and I didn’t see anyone being escorted out of the building. Lame! I felt like I was back at Yankee Stadium this season at a Red Sox/Yankees game. All hype but in the end, a major let down.
14. Fake dancing Larry sucks. The Devils employ some guy to run around the arena dancing and taking off layers of t-shirts to give to the fans. First of all, even if you paid me, I would not accept a t-shirt this guy was sweating all over. And secondly, this whole stunt was just lame. It takes away from actual fans getting their faces on the jumbotron and it’s manufactured excitement. There’s no need to manufacture this crap, if you allow it, hockey fans will give you more than enough excitement to fill up your jumbotron segments.
15. Butch Goring takes public transportation. As I was waiting for our train to depart Newark Penn Station, for my journey home, who should jump onto my train but Butch Goring. At that point, I was far too exhausted from such a crazy back-and-forth game to even take out my cellphone to snap a picture. So instead you’ll have to settle for this photo.
While I still contend that there was no need to create the Rock, it wasn’t a horrible place to catch a hockey game. I’m getting so weak in my old age!
For more photos from the game, click here.
(UPDATE: Obviously, I wasn't the only person in attendance for Friday's game. Click here to get the take of my partner in crime (my brother) and here to see how the Devils/Rangers game stacked up against the Nets/Knicks game (via Puck Daddy)
3 comments:
Hey, the Devils have given this state a few championships and a brand-spanking new arena. They've put the NJ name on the pro sports map. Instead of trying to knock them and their fans as many people like to do, how about getting behind them and supporting them? It's actually pretty fun rooting for the underdog, the team living in the shadow of the big city. Be Jersey and proud!
Geez. People have no insight on why NJ'ers root for the Rangers. Probably because most of their fans did not realize they existed until about 1994. Hate to tell you but the Rangers existed long before the Devils moved from KC to Colorado to NJ. And you talk about being an underdog? How can you look at the Devils orgranization since 1993-4 until now and think they are underdogs. The Rangers did not make the playoffs for much of that stretch. And who cares who owns them? They are hand-strapped by the same salary-cap that the Devils are. Read a book. You may learn something.
I didn’t mean an underdog in the sense that they are predicted to lose; I meant underdog as in them being persecuted – whether it be for lack of scoring, low attendance, or general lack of respect, etc. Let’s face it. Even when the Devils were winning Stanley Cups, whenever you turned on the TV or the radio, the news stations have always led off with the Rangers. The Devils were always an afterthought. The Devils have had to fight for respect in their own state since Day 1, and it continues to this day. Thankfully, the true diehard fans that the team does have — have done a good enough job to convince the team ownership to believe in the team’s future in this state and secure them a beautiful arena. Apparently, though, there is still plenty of room for improvement as there are still many in this state who would rather root for the New York teams or the Philly teams. This blogger is a perfect case in point. Her profile says she is 25 years old and from Ridgewood. The Devils have been here her whole life, yet it seems she would rather bust on them than support them — at least that’s the vibe one gets from reading this blog. And why? Because she views the Rangers as an underdog? That’s a joke. The Rangers are an original-six team from the most popular city in the world and they play in “the world’s most famous arena.” I doubt that ANYONE views them as underdogs. Maybe it is because she thinks Sean Avery is cool. … Really, unless she comes out and states her reasons for not getting behind the “home” team, we’re just left to speculate.
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