Becoming a Rangers Faithful and the latest Cyber Monday Deals

Frank Curto Updated: Nov 29, 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way New York Rangers fans watched the game. The Return to Play format allowed the team just three additional games, but this didn’t lessen the passion of rooting for the boys along with all of Rangerstown.

Growing up Rangers

I have been watching Rangers hockey for my entire life. In the early 1970s, my dad would bring the portable television into the kitchen and we would watch the likes of Don Murdoch, Brad Park, Phil Esposito, Dave, and Don Maloney, and of course John Davidson. This is where my love and Fandom began for our team on Broadway.

As a kid from Brooklyn, New York, there were only a few places to play ice hockey. Two of them were Abe Stark in Coney Island and the Sky Rink off of the West Side Highway in NYC. So I did what so many did and played roller hockey at Kings Bay Boys Club in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. This is where the love of hockey was etched forever, along with so many other Blueshirts fans.

Hockey fans are like no other. Rangers hockey fans are considered by many some of the best fans in the world. My days of playing hockey outside in the winter are a memory that sticks with me to this day along with the many friends I still am in contact with thanks to social media.

The feel of the Garden, how we all miss it

new york rangers deals — MSG – The Journal News

See for a Rangers fan, the experience of watching the team at Madison Square Garden cannot be explained with words. It has to be something experienced in person.

The cheers when the team takes the ice for warmups, to see your favorite player live on the ice, hearing the skates cut the ice.

The common ground in this is the guys back from the roller hockey league. Aside from the game itself, the real fun part was walking around the Garden during the intermissions. You would walk around and see all your friends and coaches from the rink. This just made us more fans of the team, if that was possible.

Some guys had season tickets and you could just walk and hang out. Sometimes we would talk about what the team did on the ice and see if we could do something similar back on the pavement at Kings Bay. Cherished memories that live throughout my life as well as my buddies in Brooklyn.

A Rangers fan is something that evolves over a long period of time. The wins and losses are the concrete and mortar that make the foundation of a Blueshirt.

The players that come and go are what makes the tradition. The pride is built by wearing that sweater to school or work or at the game regardless of how well or bad the team is playing.

The heart and soul of all New York Rangers fans

The origin of a Rangers fan at its heart and soul are the players. Phil Esposito, Ed Giacomin, Ron Duguay, Tom Laidlaw, Ron Greschner, Ed Mio, Glen Hanlon, Steve Weeks, Kelly Kisio, Tomas Sandstrom, Mike Richter, Brian Leetch, Mark Messier, Henrik Lundqvist, Mats Zuccarello, Jaromir Jagr, Artemi Panarin have all created life long memories that make every Rangers fan proud.

One Stanley Cup win in 1994 reiterated the pride and honor of wearing that sweater and proudly saying ” I am a Ranger,” that statement has a lot of meaning for the die-hards.

We stand now as fans is a result of where we have come from. My girlfriend for these days Kim, who I am happy to say is now my wife of 25 years, would come to the game with me and do her homework in between periods and on the ride up to the Garden. I now get to tell my two teenage daughters that story as I watch them become fans of this era of Blueshirts.

I am very proud to say that the first thing I said to them at birth was the “Potvin Sucks” chant. Ahh, a proud memory that I now set them on the course to become a Rangers fan too.

Taking my passion to another level

Now I have been writing for a few years and recognize that I am supposed to be impartial when putting my thoughts out for others to read. This story is both personal and informative. Taking on the responsibility of being a Rangers fan is no easy task.

The start of the next season is still up in the air, but the fan base is strong, very strong.

So to the so many people who helped mold me into the Rangers fan that I am today, I say thank you. There are so many of my friends that I know feel the same way and are impossible to name but if you skated with me at Kings Bay or against me as a player, coach or when we were on the same rik when I was an official, I thank you for creating those memories that have lasted my lifetime.

Even friends who wear an Islanders sweater.

I am proud to be a Rangers fan and I know mostly everyone who reads this story feels the same way.