Birthday Rantings

Today I am 75 years old. I was getting kind of impressed with the fact that I might be the oldest blogger. But lo and behold my son-in-law, who relishes in digging up the most impertinent of facts, found a 92 year old blogger in Tennessee, who has a tomato garden. Oh well, fame is fleeting and maybe I should start eating more tomatoes.

I usually spend my birthdays at Ranger games, they usually lose, so I was at the game last night. Naturally they lost. But they had a double whammy last night. My friend Paul was with me at the game. Over the fifteen years I know Paul we have gone to a few Ranger games but they also always lose when Paul is there. Paul is weird. He said the best part of the game was when the Rangers were killing penalties. They were 11-for-11. His theory was had they taken three more penalties they would have won the game.

My name was up on Sweet Spots last night, because of my birthday, thanks to my oldest son, and I missed it. I had to go where guys my age usually go when they are at a long event. Thanks to Ranger management for the nice presents. It is worth putting it up as the money goes to Children's Charities.

Speaking of the game, or pregame, why must some fool interrupt the National Anthem with the cry of 'Lets go Rangers?' And why must John Amirante insist on waving his hand to spur the crowd to cheer louder? John, this is the National Anthem you are singing not some high school song.

Talk about chants, when are we going to end the childish "Potvin Sucks?" Most of those yelling the chants have no idea who Denis Potvin is. Do they know why they are yelling the chant? Do they know that Denis Potvin was a key hall of famer on a team that won four Stanley Cups? Did they know that he personally won one Calder Memorial Award and three Norris Awards? Do they know what these awards stand for? Will me writing this cause them to stop? No. But they cheer wildly for Ron Greschner, who never won anything. He even lost the girl - to an Islander no less.

The Rangers have lost three games and have "manufactured by committee" (Renney's words) a total of three goals. Worst than that they have created very few scoring chances. In the last three games I would be hard pressed to remember an outstanding save made by the opposing goalie. Brodeur was leaving juicy rebounds all over the place last night and there were no Rangers anywhere near the rebounds. From where I was sitting it looked like Weekes over played Madden's attempted shot and was way out of position on Mogilney's game winner.

Renney continues to round up the usual suspects on the power play and it is not working. The five on five has not had any flow to it but that is understandable when the team is killing penalties and the number one and two lines usually sit. How about one or two of the top six players killing penalties? Don't you think Jagr with his rink savvy and long reach could kill penalties? Don't you think Martin Rucinsky with his speed could kill a penalty? We might even score a short handed goal. And I will continue to mention this in all my articles till the end of the season. Put Jaromir Jagr on the point for the power play and put the HMO (Hollweg, Moore and Ortmeyer) line on for the power play. We might have some action around the net and who knows, we might even score a goal.

A President once erased an eighteen minute segment of his personal tapes. Could we erase 16 seconds last night and 19 seconds the previous game to save two wins? I guess not. Even Santa couldn't do that.

ICINGS: So there was Mayor Bloomberg on TV yesterday afternoon bragging how his administration had prepared the people of New York with all the contingencies for the transit strike. Yeah, some preparation like walking across bridges and ten dollar cab rides. So you felt good Mayor? You should have been at Penn Station last night Mr. Mayor and seen the people herded like cattle, being shouted at by bullhorns and not having the slighest idea when and if they could get home. Leadership? How about putting the strike leaders in jail and threatening to fire the strikers. There was a President who did that once and it worked. He fired the whole union and replaced them and we never missed a beat. That's leadership, not counting on some judge to hand out a million dollar a day fine to the union. See what happens when you turn 75, you get ornery.

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