Anchorage, Alaska is the birthplace of two NY Rangers: Scotty Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky, who both play center. So to succeed and reach the promised land of the playoffs this year, the NY Rangers will have to take the Alaskan highway. Gomez and Dubinsky will need to be our ice road truckers and haul a very big load.
Senator John McCain has also decided to drive the Alaskan highway, and is similarly asking Governor Sarah Palin to haul a big load.
The Alaskan highway is a rough road. It's about 1,500 miles from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. My brother has driven that road several times, and he says it's tricky and dangerous. You have to watch for moose, deer, and stones the size of your fist getting hurled at your windshield from logging trucks. Plus, it beats the hell out of the suspension on your truck.
Gomez, Dubinsky, and Governor Palin will all have to change their shocks and dodge some big rocks and wildlife before the season is over.
ICINGS:
Bonus points if you knew the name of the minor league hockey team that plays in Anchorage. Scott Gomez played for them during the lockout year.
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It's the Alaska Aces of the ECHL. I'm from Atlanta and I only know that because the local ECHL franchise here, the Gwinett Gladiators (whom former Ranger draft pick Bruce Graham just signed with) played against the Aces in the ECHL finals a few years back. Funny story - the Aces won that series but if they hadn't, the Gladiators were going to have to forfeit the series... they had no money to keep flying back and forth to Alaska and had used their entire travel budget by the time the series was 4 games in.
That is a good story, never heard it. The Aces were playing 'big stack' hockey against a small stack.
It's funny how a league that once stood for East Coast Hockey League, ever grew to include the West Coast and Alaska. It must say something about the ups and downs of minor league hockey.
The long haul GA to Alaska, reminds me of the another long distance team, Amur Khabarovsk, in the new KHL Russian league that I was reading about. It's in the Russian Far East near N. Korea. It's about 1900 miles to the next closest KHL team. It's closer to the Anchorage Aces than to KHL teams in Europe. It also looks like the Aces are closer to them than the Gladiators. You could go broke flying that team to make it's schedule. And road trips must be looong.